This is where I post random garbage about what games I am playing. Check out my reviews for some more serious analysis.

• 21Dec 12

  Mental Illness, Automatic Weapons and Video Games

  "It's those volent video games. He played them for an hour a day."

  I overheard a coworker saying this a couple days ago in regards to the Adam Lanza, a man who one week ago was completely unknown and will now forever be remembered as the Sandy Hook shooter. This is not known to be factually true (and also oddly specific in the case of this particular quote: "an hour a day"). It is true Adam Lanza played some violent video games but the extent of his playing or how much of his life it took up. Just for the sake of argument though, let's just say he did play lots of violent games. I am not so much concerned w/ what one guy I work w/ thinks but of people's overall attitudes toward gaming.

  Now, I know a lot of gamers will try to brush off the idea that violent video games create violent behavior off as ridiculous using themselves as an example. "Of course playing video games makes you violent," they will say voices dripping in sarcasm, "Why I murdered a habbit of nuns myself the other week!" This is great if your ultimate goal is to be flippant but does not seriously address the issue at hand. Of course, playing violent games do not lead to violent behavior in 100% of cases and I don't think anyone is really saying they do. The question is not whether but how much and when violent video games can awaken violent behavior in people already inclined towards violence and otherwise.

  In the case of Adam Lanza, it seems pretty clear cut: if you notice a mentally ill person getting too involved in games with realistic violence, you really gotta take a good hard look at that situation. Most situations aren't so clear cut though and so I think the gaming industry and gaming community needs to take a good hard look at itself and seriously address the issues like these--and not just for the sake of worried parent either. If we want games to be taken seriously as art and entertainment form on par w/ literature or film, we need to also acknowledge the negative aspects of creating and consuming such a powerful medium.

  • Posted Dec 21, 2012 10:21 am GMT
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• 4Dec 12

  Screen Scratches Still an Issue on the 3DS XL

  I feel really dumb for letting this happen on both my original 3DS and now my 3DS XL, assuming the problem would be fixed in the latter case, but the bottom screen still causes scratches to the top screen. Or, to be more accurate, dirt can get stuck between the screens and it scratches along the outline of the bottom screen. This probably won't be an issue for most people if you don't carry your system in your pocket but for those of you who do, either get a screen protector or keep a cloth in between the screns. That is what I'm doing now.

  • Posted Dec 4, 2012 9:20 am GMT
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• 30Nov 12

  Video Games in MoMA

  I personally don't need the MoMA's approval to think of video games as art but apparently this is a big deal. Here is the list of what they aquired so far (from MoMA's website):

  Pac-Man
  Tetris
  Another World
  Myst
  SimCity 2000
  vib-ribbon
  The Sims
  Katamari Darmacy
  EVE Online
  Dwarf Fortress
  Portal
  flOw
  Passage
  Canabalt

  Now, I haven't played through all these games and am not even familiar w/ some but this seems like a pretty good start to covering gaming history. Certainly, there are some glaring omissions. First off, apparently MoMA has not even talked to Nintendo but if they can't get Mario or Zelda games, the whole thing is bunk in my opinion. I also think they need an classic American arcade game to compliment Namco's Pac-Man (andAtari game would be a logical choice). Seems to me too that they need a big-budget FPS of some sort to really capture gaming culture and an open-word, non-MMO RPG like Skyrim. There looking to go for forty though games overall so I'd rather not dwell too much on what they don't have (esp. sinc they do plan to include many of the things I mentioned).

  As far as what they do, the ones I am happiest to see are:

  SimCity 2000 - This is probably the game I have spent the most time playing in my life. I just love it. Naturally, the original SimCity was more groundbreaking but 2000 is the one where they really nailed the formula and had the perfect balance of user-friendliness and complexity. I really like Maxis's philosphy of not creating games but software toys at the time. (You see a game, like baseball, you can only do one thing w/ but a toy, like a ball, has limitless possibilities...) You could really play SimCity 2000 any which way you wanted--though lets face it, the best thing to do was build a huge city and then destroy it w/ natural disasters.

  Passage - I can't imagine this was anything but a no-brainer for them. It is the first video game I'm aware of created specifically to be art that garnered any kind of main-stream media attention.

  Tetris - To me this stands out as perfect elegance in design. There are lots of games that are equally simple, equally fun or equally addictive but Tetris just has that certain something that makes it timeless. Perhaps the good people at the MoMA can figure out just what this is because I have no idea why there's about ten versions of Tetris I can't seem to stop playing whenever I pick them up but Dr. Mario just doesn't do it for me. (If they do want to include another falling bricks game though, I propose Lunines.)

  These ones, I am more skeptical about:

  Myst - This was a big deal at the time and, as per gamer lore, popularized the CD-ROM drive for gaming. Personally though I just think it shouldn't be included because it sucks. And I say that blunty because it is absolutely horribly awful to play and anyone who says they like it is lying. I might suggest Return to Zork as a similar adventure game that is not terrible. Hell, put Liesure Suit Larry in the exhibit for all I care. I just don't want to hear another word about Myst. We got enough of that in the nineties and it sucked then too.

  EVE Online - Adminttedly, I am not a huge MMORPG guy but it seems to me Everquest was earlier and more influential and World of Warcraft is the peak of the genre as far as popularity. Picking EVE Online is like doing an exhibit on heavy metal and including Judas Priest but not Black Sabbath or Metallica. You could do a hell of a lot worse but there's just stuff that makes more sense when you only have a limited selection.

  And these are a few I now want to play because of the list:

  vib-ribbon - This doesn't sound so mind blowing w/ today's technology but had I been aware of a PlayStation game where you take the disk out and put a music CD of your choing in, well, that would have had me going freaking nuts.

  Dwarf Fortress - City building w/ rouguelike qualities complete w/ ASCII graphics? I could play that at work and people would just think I was doing some crazy computer thing beyond their comprehension. Count me in.
  

  • Posted Nov 30, 2012 7:30 am GMT
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