rolling thread of stuff worth reading on videogames

Make childbirth simulators!

now i am on his forum.

"Yes, Schopenhauer is inappropriate, but random modern philosophasters wouldn't be. For your information, it is the anti-racists and the anti-sexists who are the bigots: there is no more racist person than the anti-racist, and no more sexist than the anti-sexist. "

seriously i know this isn't a productive addition but can someone fucking stab this cunt plz

"Another thing I've already talked about here (in the "Icy's Genius" thread). Style is not a "decision". Only someone who has never created anything could think that it is. Style, as Schopenhauer somewhere explains, is a direct reflection of the author's character. And character is NEVER a decision. It is "an order of fate" as Baudrillard would put it. All I did was express myself as genuinely, as honestly, as directly as I could.

Man, it gets tiring having to clear up the same little misunderstandings for people again and again. I live on a planet with 6 billion people, all of whom operate under a number of unfathomably crude and simple-minded assumptions. What is education doing, eh? Still teaching people about "equal rights", "freedom", "justice", "proofs" and other such mythical beasts no doubt."

*ahem*

ohhh ... senpai ...

Yeah, the levels of craziness are just amazing in that one! I just skimmed over that guy's article, didn't even want to look at the rest of the site, once I realized that wow he might be actually serious and this isn't an Onion-style piece. It's like if Dave Sim was into video games.

Pretty much agree with you thomp on Pitt's article, but I guess I appreciate the intent nonetheless - I really am surprised how video games really "returned" to the mainstream in the last couple of years (beyond the typical Madden type stuff during the last gen) with the Wii and DS, with much older and female audiences really catching on - lots of anecdotal evidence for me personally, yet weirdly it seems the 'hardcore' are getting moreso in response to this. Not saying if any of it is good or bad, but most analyses tend to get obnoxiously navel-gazing more than insightful anyway... hrm

The misogyny in the post is pretty horrific. But, that said, he picks targets that really are ripe for ridicule.

mordy if you at his forum where ppl are like "i agree with you that leigh alexander and c. are overhyped and not very good but do you really think calling them a lot of different words for slut is clever?" he is like "you just don't understand how above considerations like that i am and so i am banning you"

i dunno: i quite like the idea of leigh alexander. there aren't really many outlets that would commission her to seriously think through some of her stuff in an organised way, though, is the thing.

nhex when i went to edinburgh with a crowd of ppl i'd known since sixth form earlier this year it was only the girls that brought videogames. (tho one of them was dating a guy that was carrying around what was basically a handbag with the gears of war logo on it, which i don't know what to think.) i guess in terms of ppl i know who at least halfway make a hobby of videogames it's an even split. but it is pretty much only girls i hear saying "oh videogames are lame." (including one person who IS WRITING A POSTGRADUATE THESIS ON THE COMIC BOOK BONE, which i gotta say, the hour i spent trying to beat brigan in odin sphere just now is a more culturally enlightening use of my time or anyone's, wait, i can't remember what my point was

not really something to 'read' but i can't think of a better thread to put it:

http://tasvideos.org/PasswordGenerators.html

i have to admit that i am sort of bored w/the whole hardcore vs. wii grandmas debate at this point - doesnt seem to really be much more to say

not in reference to to what you were saying thomp - i think that the shifts in the male/female divide in gamers is way more interesting

http://kidicarus222.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-secret-to-everybody.html
Shit is RIGOROUS!

jesus christ dude

omg the article is so long, but i will read it all eventually

that thing is depressing

"Final Fantasy VIII uses the series’ rich history of meaningful names to enhance the game’s plot."

Also warning - that article has a sort of crazy amount of spoilers for Mother 3 and many many other games.

holy shit

Does anyone have Martin Amis's book on Space Invaders to scan in?
I haven't read Martin Amis but I enjoy making fun of him and that Space Invaders book looks like a goldmine.

he wrote a BOOK on space invaders? like a 33 1/3?

hey u know what, someone should do a 33 1/3 series but on video games!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

would read

haha i would feel sickened by the idea but mainly because i feel i would do it better than whoever ended up writing them : /

nunez you may have seen these?

http://www.martinamisweb.com/commentary_files/ma_space_invaders.pdf
http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-09-20/books/their-back-pages/

tbh i think reading the whole thing would make me like him, at least a little: his new maps of hell mb

Iwata Asks for Punchout http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/punchout/vol1_page1.jsp

Oh whoops didn't realize this link had already been posted (or even that there was an ignored Punch Out thread)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-edge-of-reason?page=1

the tale of an acclaimed iPhone game and how it's been hogtied by the actions of an unconscionable douchelord

geez that sounds awful....

What an asshole.

This NYTimes article on Beatles Rock Band is EPIC:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16beatles-t.html

terrible title and probably could've been edited down a couple pages, but interesting

followed by bleep blorp buzz! video games, not just for nerds anymore

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_214/6358-Artificial-Thrills

I think the subject matter of that article is absolutely worth examining, but I can't feel everytime I read one that covers these games they fall pretty short of achieving real insight into those games, the communities around them, etc. I mean it's a pretty diehard subculture that goes through the trouble of hacking these games, making story and interface translations and so on... but of course these dudes are just pervs so why look too deeply, right? That one above kind of tries, a little...

Interview: Stardock's Wardell On Matchmaking Out The 'Jerks'

Stardock trying some kind of social data/preference gathering for matchmaking in their Impulse service. Pretty good idea, I think - SFIV and GFWL would be helped greatly by this kind of thing, as it is you can just submit good/bad reports, preferring/avoiding players, but it's pretty blunt, lacking useful nuance. Of course, it's just as possible the griefers could hijack and ruin the system, or people simply being dishonest or unintentionally misusing the system. Worth a try, though.

ilg favourite leigh alexander used to write a regular column about japanese sex games

Stardock trying some kind of social data/preference gathering for matchmaking in their Impulse service

ok in context i thought you meant, like, actual matchmaking. like qiran.com or something

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_222/6614-Not-That-Theres-Anything-Wrong-With-That

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4151/valves_writers_and_the_creative_.php

admit i like this because primarily because i support the workplace ideas

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2009/11/5/making-games-faster.html

They said that if you see your time as an unending ocean ("hey, I'll be here for another 15 hours anyway today, and again tomorrow"), then it doesn't even phase you if the solution to a problem would take 5 hours of menial labor from you. But when your time is limited, you think about alternate solutions, or question the framing of the problem that is leading to the tedious work.

i look at life this way - it is an unending ocean, so everything takes forever and hence nothing is ever finished

New blog I found about minority gaming: http://borderhouseblog.com/

I actually love the idea.

if only Token Minorities was still updating

accessibility article. i tht v interesting.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26386/Analysis_Game_Design_Accessibility_Matters.php

some good points. i like the point about positive permanence. for me one benefit of that is not having to run menial tasks over and over again every time u die, which doesn't make the game more challenging- just more boring

two words of rebuttal: -YOU DIED-

REAL DEMON'S SOULS IGNORES THIS ARTICLE.

That was interesting but I hate the canonization of Canabalt as some sort of golden model of game design :(

it's getting coint and plick love...

I love it! I even included it in my best of 2009 ballot.

ditto

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/01/npd-analysis-how-to-sell-a-wii-game/

More boring industry numbers, I know

Miss those old insanely long, nostalgia-drenched write-ups of FF games by Tim Rogers?

http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=patff

I admit, I read the ones for IV and VI.

The Decade That Was: Influential Faces