rolling thread of stuff worth reading on videogames

There's a lot of interesting articles out there about it... the story about the biggest corporate infiltration was pretty fascinating if i remember

kinda love these rabbit hole obsessions -
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/akira/jimgregory.htm

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20120916.gif

Awes

i want to read this, come on Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenwall/sensible-software-19861999-by-read-only-memory

It's so fucked up when internet people you have a connection to or share a board with get caught up in world events and don't make it out. Like, it's one thing to hear about horrid shit going on, and quite another to have an online connection in some way.

http://www.tomvsbruce.com/index.php/2012/09/17/tom-vs-bruce-dune-wars

The Dune series featured an all-powerful emperor who ruled the universe and whose autocratic methods spawned the cleverly named Fremen (a disguised spelling of the words “free men” meant to get past the era’s draconian entertainment media censorship) paralleling the civil rights marchers and Congolese mercenaries who were their contemporary philosophic brethren. Games of that time were often centered on all-powerful characters, known as “bosses”, who were the apotheoses of various oppressive ideologies and whose defeat in computer games presaged their real life demise. Political figures like Richard Nixon, military leaders like Marshal McLuhan, and religious demagogues like the Pope of Greenwich Village all met their virtual doom at the hands of rocket-launcher-wielding social reformers. The groundbreaking game “Doom”, known for its seemingly endless succession of boss fights, was actually a play on the name “Dune” and was largely an homage to its predecessor’s anti-establishment ethic. Today’s video games, centered on vapid exchanges between electronic “friends” sharing no common experience except the acquisition of a few more broadband approval badges, are a far cry from the pioneering days of computer gaming, when so many developers were harassed, imprisoned, and even executed for daring to squeeze a few bytes of democracy into 16k of code.

There's a lot of interesting articles out there about it... the story about the biggest corporate infiltration was pretty fascinating if i remember

― Nhex, Thursday, September 13, 2012 2:22 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally remember that one, pretty fascinating, it was basically a William Gibson novel

military leaders like Marshal McLuhan

am i missing something here

I have only read a bit of it so far but I am guessing that it's talking about the Civ4 thing where "great people" will be born, and it'll be a randomly cohsen "great person" name and they might have different job than what you expect (ie. Isaac Newton, Diplomat... etc).

I should probably read it tho.

ohhh

odd article
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/arts-ents/film/game-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on.18937122?_=c5aa09e5f00033397bb3eed2b4343318bc216f7b

Thus, my opening paradox. The artform of gaming is at a strange juncture. In a way, it's similar to the stalled mainstream cinema of today: just take a look at all those repetitive superhero movies getting one boring retread after another. But then, at least today in cinema, there is a vibrant indie and underground scene.

um

So where are our independent games producers? There's plenty of games out there coming from small producers but, believe me, they're terrible, so bad a baby would get bored with them.

um... even on iOS alone that claim is patently wrong

case #2139993824 of ignorant lack of research in a video game article

i have not read/listened to either of these things yet but i've been meaning to

wonkbook post on greek economist and valve employee Yanis Varoufakis

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/28/the-economics-of-video-games/

interview with him by Doug Henwood from july

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#S120705

i thought that economics of video games article was fascinating

yeah i love reading about EVE but fuck if i'm ever playing it.

i had no idea of the complexity. it made me think back to reading reamde, the whole set up of which i guess is much less naive or fanciful than i thought at the time.

Richard Cobbett's saturday morning crapshoot series is wonderful. He often turns up the most batshit insane games, and it's always an entertaining read.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/29/saturday-crapshoot-gag/

just saved a bunch of those to read later, thanks

http://videogametourism.at/node/1663

love that sentiment

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/10/04/if-you-stare-into-the-andean-abyss/

good read

i still find it odd to see serious board games covered on video game sites, but this is has been more and more the case over the last few years - like game designers giving up completely on tech to focus completely on rules

a nice human interest story on L.A. Noire
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-09-night-and-the-city

i liked that!

molyneux's at it again
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/ff-peter-molyneux/all/

the LA Noire piece is great, and makes me want to play the game more than anything else I've read on it.

do ppl itt know this errant signal dude? his take on the 'violence' bit is interesting imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSBn77_h_6Q

not bad

I remember watching his wonderful piece about Doom. Need to pay more attention to this guy.

yeah, i am liking this guy

brainy gamer gets caught off guard by papo y yo
http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2012/11/the-wreckage-and-the-way-out.html

http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x+men-destiny

i gave up like eleven paragraphs in. that was really badly written.

the bit where they quote a bunch of random forum posts for two paragraphs is o_O but it's generally interesting enough to be worth it

not sure how to react to the papo y yo article, but i am interested

silicon knights downfall definitely interesting to me, just for their work on Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes, but it sounds like their glory days are long gone

It's a seemingly unavoidable fact that not every game can be great, or good, or even average.

seemingly

paragraph 2:

So how does a game, one made by a celebrated studio and backed by one of the richest game publishers in the world, turn out to be a bad video game? This is a story about exactly that.

paragraph 7:

The following story excerpts extensive interviews with former Silicon Knights employees who describe their experiences at what they say was a disorganized, unfocused company that squandered ample time and resources before being forced to release a game it was far from proud of.

paragraph 12:

But X-Men: Destiny stands alone as the worst game that Silicon Knights has released since it was founded. How did a company that was once known for compelling, original, quality video games come to release a title best described as "mediocre," "mindless," "generic", and "an absolute mess"?

JUST FUCKING TELL ME

spoiler: poor leadership

Thanks for linking the Errant Signal guy - enjoyed the violence one and the DOOM one equally. Nice takes, feels pretty on-the-money without ever trying to be the single definitive take or anything.

yeah, they've all been good
can't say anything for the "game grumps" thing he recommended though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB2ty4Qhdlw
i kinda hate bastion but the points he makes are all good. it's just no fun to play is all.

His Sonic the Hedgehog one is pretty quietly truth-bomby too I think.

nice read on Bastion! admittedly by the end I was kind of trudging though the fights, the music and graphics got me through it. i also really appreciated the themes/ending as discussed well in the video (regardless of the heartbreak interpretation)

I liked the article in general, but "Kid finds a memento from a girl he knew. Always used to fancy her" to "This is about the breakup of a serious long term relationship" is nearly hilariously creepy.

Or he played braid.

Oh yeah!

this might not be worth reading, but i dug it
http://gameological.com/2012/11/on-the-level-secret-of-mana/

CRPG and The Adventure Gamer are simultaneously playing through So You Want to Be a Hero