Gamer blog, about gaming. The thoughts and rants of a transgender MtF who grew up playing way too much Super Nintendo, and wants a career in the video game industry. I'm currently trying to teach myself the abcs of programming, and getting a feel for the program Game Maker Studio.
I already wrote 70% of this and accidentally posted it and deleted it, so I may be a bit more brief this time. I've been spending my time on FFXIV A Realm Reborn, lately. I'm a pretty dejected Square Enix fan (though I actually loved FFXII), and the same goes for MMORPGS after WoW has lost a lot of its charm for me over the past many years. It was with great skepticism that I began to take interest in FFXIV ARR.
In spite of everything I said in the previous paragraph, I did get interested against my better judgement. I didn't look at their advertising in fact, it was entirely word of mouth that had made me interested in FFXIV, in spite of my lost faith in Square Enix. I had heard enough from various beta testers that I had to try the benchmark to see if i could run it on my feeble hardware. Watching the benchmark play scenes over and over again, got me pretty damn excited I guess.
By the time Early Access rolled around, I was a child again, and it was Christmas morning. The game itself so far does not dissapoint! The game looks beautiful, even on the low settings I have to play it on. The lush beautiful environments rendered in the true final fantasy style, compel me to want to explore. The game combines features that WoW has since standardized with some of the better aspects of ffxi, and a few unique ideas of its own. That sounds perhaps less than special, but when playing I don't feel like "this is mediocre, or this redundant" at all. My only complaint is that compared to ffxi, it seems a bit too far in the opposite direction, being a bit too easy. MMORPGS have had a "Nintendo Hard" era, and we've moved past that without looking at what aspects of that challenge were worth holding on to.
The game's launch couldn't have gone any more wrong. It was almost impossible to play at launch, the servers filled up to capacity within hours, the lobby server crashed, and many of the servers were closed to new characters being made on them. For whatever reason we were all given a second set of codes as if the first early access and game licence codes were not enough. This caused problems for my girlfriend and one of my best friends. My girlfriend received a second set of codes that was american, due to me buying the game for her here, my best friend did not receive this second set of codes at all. This resulted in my best friend's account getting suspended which they were immediate able to fix after finally contacting support, but waiting in support they were told nobody was available to help them after reaching the end of an hour and a half long que. I also waited in support for my girlfriend since I had used my card to buy her game, but inevitably, we had to get a refund and she had to buy her own copy.
This message was all I saw for entire days of early access
During the first week the game became slightly more accessible as they were taking it down several times for maintenance and restricting character creation on almost every server it finally became possible to actually log in. We reluctantly began to play together on another server, as my friend's server has been closed almost constantly since launch for the creation of new characters, and we elected to transfer there later using their character transfer service when it opens up supposedly later this month. This means avoiding socializing for half a month so I don't make too many friends to say goodbye to.
It's been almost a couple of weeks now, and against my better judgement, I've discovered a link shell full of cool people, and even another trans girl player! The game is possible to log in now, for the most part. I haven't been completely disallowed to play except right after maintenance, and I begin to almost feel I can take access to the game for granted, you know like other games I own and enjoy. We were all given a one week extension of our free trial periods, so I only have to worry about paying for server transfers this month. The game is plagued with bots selling gil in all the main cities and even a few of the areas beyond them. My in game blacklist is already a quarter full. I've never played an MMORPG at launch before and I've heard some of this stuff that has been happening is normal.
I'll be back with an actual review of the game itself later, as well as some thoughts on the series, and jrpgs in 2013 at least in terms of western reception and response
Among the games I bought on steam summer sale, was Sonic 4 Episode II. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this one. I enjoyed the first one to be honest, the first... sonic.. four, that is. Sonic 4 Episode I had a lot of problems that were addressed yet to my knowledge episode II didn't get much a greater response, so I expected more of the same mediocrity.
For starters the physics are actually improved. Sonic still starts out way too sluggishly, but after that it's good. Jumping doesn't cancel momentum, stopping while jumping doesn't make you fall straight down, and these mechanics while hardly noticeable unless you analyze them, really change the feel of the game.
But that isn't the only thing that is an improvement from episode I, another area of improvement is the stages, or "zones" in sonic lingo. Episode I featured the most bland possible environments, and were accused of being throwbacks to various sonic games. Episode II has two environments that are obviously throwbacks and yet are much more interesting. Doing the casino thing again was a fairly bad idea, we've seen a zillion casinos now, and if you're not gonna include that badass music from sonic II, don't waste time making another one.
The oil desert was actually my favorite, sonic II had oil ocean which had a subtle desert theme, in the style of the music track that played there. This environment was arid and utilitarian and yet it was my favorite. It brings to the surface that while sonic the hedgehog is ultimately directed at kids, in the old days it had just a slight hint of edginess that contrasted with super Mario, which nowadays developers seem to have forgotten. To me environments like this bring out a little of that edginess.
The MUSIC is another improvement. I haven't heard decent music in a sonic game in years, and sonic 4 was sort of getting there in a few areas, but this game cuts way closer to the catchy melodies that made 16 bit sonic so unbelievably memorable. Again they showed willingness to bring in just -hint- of edginess to the tracks, that brings back some of the flair that was sonic the hedgehog in his glory days. I am no music expert so I am afraid I can't really point out what aspect of the music seems to bring out that element, it's subtle, but I swear, it's there.
spoiler mark before I continue
Like the first one you can unlock super sonic, which to me was a very fun and satisfying aspect of sonic 2 and 3, it if nothing else, is an alternative goal that makes collecting the chaos emeralds more fun and rewarding.
There is also "lock on" content with metal sonic! you play as metal sonic! how cool is that! It takes place in the zones from the first sonic 4 game but it doesn't return to the sluggish physics of those games. A really cool feature that took me by absolute surprise.
also it made me realize I hate voice acting in a sonic game. The game is silent, and all cut scenes which are short and direct to the point, were made with the character's animations before or during parts of the gameplay, just like the old days. I grew up on Sonic Sat AM and the comic book that came out of it, and I actually have a hard time accepting anyone who isn't Jaleel White as the voice of sonic. His voice was perfect for Sonic if you ask me. But people make fun of him for having been Steve Erkel.
So all in all, is sonic 4 ep II the revival of the glory days of sonic the hedgehog I've been waiting for? no. But it's a lot closer to that then the previous one. I'll give this one a solid 7.5
I'm gonna stay out of controversial topics unless I can speak with at least some authority on them. Racism happens in video games, but racial matters confound me more than others, so It's its best I leave it to gamers of color to comment on.
I had a post in the making and then I realized I saved the draft to the wrong blog and couldn't fix it and so I have to re write it so if you happen to be a reader and were wondering where I've been I haven't disappeared off the earth. Also last post was a bit guilt ridden. A friend of mine has made me realize that guilt is useless and even selfish in a way and unproductive for this sort of thing. I would take it down but I do think there are good things to be taken from it too?
At any rate I'll go back to what I came here for soon: posting about games and game development.
“For us it’s less about the story and more about the structure of the gameplay and what makes sense to be presenting to the consumer.” - Shigeru Miyamoto discusses female characters in Nintendo games.
“Sorry, but our target audience is still hyper-hormoned male teens.”
"For us it's less about the story and more about the structure of the gameplay and what makes sense to be presenting to the consumer." - Shigeru Miyamoto discusses female characters in Nintendo games.
Damsels in Distress, Some thoughts of mine as a female gamer.
I want to talk about two videos recently released on the internet discussing tropes that are used frequently in video games, specifically the ever persistent, Damsel in Distress. I wanted to do a video about this, but I need to set up stuff for recording and editing, but I guess nothing is stopping me from doing one later.
The videos in question are this one, by Anita Sarkeesian
And this very eloquent response, by a woman I only know as Sarah, who has a video channel on You Tube, this video has a cissexist, if probably unintentional statement at the end, so watch with care.
My difficulty here is that I think both of these women make very valid and important points, and my goal is to try to dissect both of these arguments and explain my own stance on the topic.
I mean no disrespect to either of these women, and it's an unfortunate fact that both of them have faced a great deal of cruelty, vitriol and much worse from BOTH sides of the argument. I want to discuss my disagreements with them, and my agreements with them, but if you have any rage, send it towards me, or keep it to yourself, I do not condone any threats of violence, crude behavior or general nastiness simply because you do not agree with their opinion.
this also may contain spoilers, particularly for Legend of Zelda games, so read with care.
Moving on from that, Sarah, or Kite Tales on youtube counters Anita's argument by saying that Anita's criticisms come from a "limited narrow view of what are unacceptable representations of these characters" rather than a "systemic big picture perspective" as Sarkeesian claims. I think this is somewhat missing the point however. The issue I don't think is with one particular character or another, it's the repeated use of the damsel in distress trope that makes it toxic. If we truly had gender equality while we might use a captive or distressed character as a plot device, but it wouldn't matter if the character was male or female, but the fact is the damsel in distress trope is just that, a damsel. The very existence of this trope bears the suggestion that women need to be rescued, and men do not.
It isn't just the fact that the trope is called damsel in distress, either, it's the fact that we see this trope being used over and over again, reinforcing the idea that men are the ones who get to be heroes, and we women need to wait our turn and be rescued. I can speak from experience, I truly felt this as someone who was placed in the body of the wrong gender, and someone who, I changed my self perception of my gender at some point in my life.
I truly felt that, If I wanted to be a girl, if I am a girl, that I couldn't possibly be one because I always want to be the hero in the story. Girls don't get to be heroes, we get to be maidens, we get to be clerics and healers, we get to be dancers, we get to be singers, we don't get to be the hero. I didn't feel this way because feminists told me to, I didn't feel this way because Anita Sarkeesian told me to, I felt this way, because the video games which I love, told me to.
In the same way, the way Anita refers to it as a form of objectification, I don't think necessarily speaks to any specific title, so much as the message emphasized by the trope as a whole. The message of women being the ball in a game between two men, is something subliminal, caused by the reinforcement of this trope countless times, throughout gaming as well as movie and cartoon history. It doesn't mean that mario sees Peach as an object or that link sees Zelda as one, it's a result of the countless times women have been pushed aside caged, or put in the fridge, by games and media.
But that isn't to say Sarah, or Kite Tales doesn't make some excellent points of her own.
For starters, I don't think we need to get rid of Zelda and Peach, many people feel threatened by Anita's criticism, I think because they fear in a gender equal world, we would have to destroy these beloved characters. Or maybe they feel they are being told they should feel guilty for liking them, that they should feel guilty for rescuing peach and zelda.
We can enjoy these characters and keep them while still subverting the disempowerment caused by the damsel in distress trope, and in some level, we have already begun doing so. These characters were created in the 1980s, and have changed a lot since then.
Sarkeesian brushed upon the fact that peach has been given her own game, and I suppose will bring it up later with heavy criticism, but while there were some sexist stereotypes in that game, it WAS peach's very own adventure, not as a sidekick or as multiplayer character option, and now in a recent game that is a flagship mario platformer she will be a playable character again.
In my opinion no matter how many times she is rescued by Mario giving peach her own adventures is the first and most powerful way of subverting the notion that she is "helpless" is to give her adventures of her own, let her be the hero, and let mario take a sabbatical, or maybe, let him be the one to depend upon her.
One of the most important things Sarah says is one that is easily missed: would Robin Williams have named his beloved daughter Zelda if the character wasn't important? This may seem like superfluous invocation of a celebrity but really, I think it speaks volumes about how much the character Zelda has come to mean to us gamers.
To reduce her to a helpless sniveling damsel is an unfair misrepresentation of this character. Yes link is the one to be the playable character, yes I wish Zelda could be playable too, and no, wand of gamelon does NOT count. (in fact I hold this partly accountable for making the idea look bad) but the series has gone through great lengths to make her an important character too, and a memorable, and lovable one.
I really do think that Sarkeesian brushes over the impact of this character a little too lightly, and reduces her much more really even than the damsel trope does. Yes she is still a damsel in distress, but I think while she may be that, the series has gone out of its way to demonstrate that she has value, power and capability all her own, to give us a reason why she is legendary, and while that doesn't change how harmful the trope can be I do think it makes a huge difference.
Sarkeesian states that Zelda is at her best when she is being sheik, and having adventures of her own, but I have to disagree. (While I do love Tetra and would kill to play a game with Tetra as the heroine) I think zelda is at her best when, in three different games, she fights alongside link at some point in the game, she doesn't need to dress up as a man to do be a hero in her own right, and that is an important detail to me. Princess Tetra showed us that women of color can be princesses too, but sadly this was subverted by the fact that she is converted to her fair skinned "true form" but that is an entirely other topic for another day, this post is getting long enough.
The big problem I have with this statement [About the toxicity of Damsel in Distress] is the implication that a single act of misfortune upon a female character disempowers her entire being and invalidates any opportunity to be considered a hero.
To a certain extent I really agree with this statement. I don't want to minimize how toxic the damsel in distress trope can be, but I do feel Sarkeesian's criticism is a bit too broad and sweeping. We can never rescue a female character? even if she does plenty of the heavy lifting in other opportunities? What about if the hero is also female?
In conclusion I still tend to lean more towards Sarkeesian's argument, that the damsel in distress trope is highly toxic, especially in the great quantity it is being used, against a backdrop of really marginal amounts of strong female lead characters. Sarah goes on to list a number of positive examples, most of which are all good, but the basic idea is we need more like this. More Jades, more fem sheps, more female heroines in video games.
She states that games are ultimately a business but I prefer to think of them as an art form, and as such are subject to critique. But she makes a number of valid points that I really think needed to be shared with those who haven't seen it already, and needed to be reflected upon further.
Last but not least I have to address the painfully cissexist statement she uses towards the end of her video. I don't think she meant to insult or exclude trans people, but the unfortunate fact is I don't think she thought about the fact that we exist. The suggestion that XX chromosomes are what makes a woman, is something I would have let slide in the past, but as a trans woman, this is horribly disempowering. We don't need to be defined by our chromosomes or genitals, can't it be okay that womanhood comes from something deeper and perhaps a little less tangible?
I was at the store about a week ago and I had some cash on me, so I was able to buy a game for once, but I'm not gonna have the chance to again for a while, so... they were out of Animal Crossing New Leaf. I decided to get something else that had been on my wishlist for some time, but I never got around to purchasing: Kid Icarus: Uprising, by Nintendo and Sora LTD.
Holy Cow I regret not buying this game earlier, it's AMAZING!!
Okay so let's start with the basics, the game is an on the rails shooter sorta like star fox, mixed with a 3rd person shooter, which takes place on the ground. I find most of it actually takes place on the ground, partly because the pacing becomes a little slower. It was designed to be so that you could pick up a single chapter, play it and then put it down and go on with your life, supposedly ideal for a handheld game, but I find that you only have time to play IF you have time for a whole chapter, which kind of takes a little while. where as with ocarina of time which was originally designed for a home console, I pick it up, play it a little while and then turn it off and then turn it on again later... this one I find myself playing for hours at a time just shutting the system to do other things and then opening it up again to keep playing... but that also exemplifies just how fun it is.
The game has 9 different weapon categories: bows, blades, claws, palms, staves, arms, canons, orbitars, and clubs. Each individual weapon has a pretty different feel from the next, and you can get the same one with different stats or abilities, so if you like item collecting, this game is quite satisfying. It also offers a variety of different play styles for this reason.
The real lure of this game though, is the action! everything is fast paced and the system of shooting while dodging is simple, but SO satisfying. It's so much fun to blast an enemy with the bow, and then dash or roll out of the way before getting hit! Pit is sort of a badass but sort of a dweeb, so I don't feel embarrassed when I screw up like I do with commander shepard or bayonetta. The game comes with a difficulty slider that goes to the decimal point, adding great replayability as the material rewards AND the challenge increase as you increase the slider, and some areas are only accessible on certain difficulty.
The story is a lot of fun too, the whole game has banter between Pit, and Palutena, the goddess whom he loyally serves, and even between them and the enemies. There is tons of witty humor and almost no fourth wall, every character is likable and in my opinion this is half the fun of the game. The dialogue doesn't interrupt gameplay, everything happens during the action, with very few very short cinematic interruptions. A lot of the flight parts of the games manage to take advantage of the on the rails design to be very cinematic, while still offering intense gameplay. This shows that a great story can contribute to a games enjoyment and doesn't need to interrupt gameplay, and a story doesn't need to be dark or gritty, to be good.
The biggest complaint I have heard about this game is the control scheme which is somewhat awkward due to the 3ds's limitations. In my opinion this control scheme also takes the most advantage of the 3ds' abilities. It DOES get tiring for my hand after a while, and I don't know how anyone with severe carpal tunnel could play it for very long... there are other control schemes you can switch to, and a number of options like targeting aid that might mitigate this for you however, but I actually find this main control scheme to be most effective, I am better at aiming with this, than I am with control stick shooters.
Pit is another white male hero, but for me personally, I enjoy when heroes are at least sort of cute and androgynous like pit. He is a very likable character, at least in my opinion. He comes off as sort of dorky and awkward and yet heroic and resolute when he needs to be. I found his devotion to lady palutena quite cute.
I haven't spent a lot of time on multiplayer yet so I can't comment on it. It seems surprisingly fun, I enjoyed the light vs dark a bit more than the free for all... a few more balancing mechanics make it more playable for me. The focus of this game is clearly on single player though.
The music is another area where this is amazing! Some of it is heavy metal, some of it is techno and some of it is symphony, but all of its good. This is an area where a lot of games these days really kind of miss the mark for me. The music intensifies the action and the story both, and creates a profoundly epic feeling that makes this game more intense. Almost every track is memorable, and the on the rails stages allow for a departure from traditional song structure to illustrate the changing scenery and events, to incredible effect.
I think Palutena while playing a somewhat passive role in this game, relying on Pit to do the heavy lifting... might be a possible character in Super Smash Bros 4. I wouldn't guarantee it, but it seems like Nintendo and Sora are making a push for more female characters, and since this game is also developed by Sora LTD, her appearance is more likely than that of a female character from another series.
This game is a memorable adventure that combines satisfying 3rd person shooter combat with great music a fun story, and lovable characters. The replayability is great with the number of items to collect and difficulty settings, I'm glad I finally gave this game a chance. I feel like my review isn't doing it any justice. 9.5/10
Xbox one finally caved into consumer pressure and changed their policy regarding used games, and online requirement. I wanted to share a few thoughts about this.
As a consumer, I think this is mildly good news, it shows that Xbox can’t control the market and do whatever it wants and get away with…
It’s interesting to see that MS didn’t suffer Nintendo’s and Sony’s attack of hubris (which i have seen named: the “i am the king of the world and fuck you” syndrome). Then again, MS is pretty used to backtrack a lot to please the audience *cough*WindowsME*cough*Vista*cough*.
I’m sad too, because for many years all the consoles i owned were nintendo (NES and SNES). The problem for Nintendo, i think, it’s that the videogame market audience is now dominated by the US, rather than Japan, and they demand basically more Maddens and more CoDs, which the American devs are very skilled at.
If at some point the audience were dominated by Europe, there would be another shift… although i don’t think there would be an European-made console.
And boy, would it change if China decided to un-ban videogame consoles!
Xbox one finally caved into consumer pressure and changed their policy regarding used games, and online requirement. I wanted to share a few thoughts about this.
As a consumer, I think this is mildly good news, it shows that Xbox can't control the market and do whatever it wants and get away with it, people need to remember that as consumers, they have POWER over corporations, and we can all hit them where it hurts: in their pocket book. Imagine if this kind of organization happened against wal-mart, or something? But at least it shows that major corporations can't ALWAYS walk all over us.
As a Nintendo fan however, this is less good news. I was looking forward to the xbox one dropping out of the race, and making the wii u and ps4 go head to head. Now it looks like things will be the way they were with the wii, and a lot of third party games are going to go the other way because of it. It's already happening: no kingdom hearts 3 wii u, no ff15 wii u, and a lot of others will likely go this way. I guess my dream of returning to the glory days of snes, when Nintendo dominated the game consoles and only the rebellious sega upstart could keep up in the race.
As an Xbox fan and owner, it's good news again though, as if I ever get another console this generation, the xbox one is now a viable option for me, these two things really were deal breakers. I was so uninterested in the console before, I didn't even investigate whether my existing XBLA games will be playable on it, or the games I own digitally on games on demand, anybody know?
Human Angle: Queer Games: The Secret Avant Garde of Videogames
Don’t miss this excellent video highlighting queer-focused games featuring Mattie Brice and Anna Anthropy!
I came across this video of the Nostalgia Critic that brought me back to a topic I've already addressed once, Are Video Games art? I covered this topic before but it's been bugging me because I didn't really go into the level of thought and detail that I wanted to on this topic.
I'm not really a big fan of drawing a hard distinction between high art and just "art" any more than I am between drawing a distinction between art and entertainment. That being said, my passion for my most beloved medium compels me to want to analyze it further.
I guess I really want to primarily address what he says in this video and offer my opinion where I differentiate. First of all I enjoy Nostalgia Critic, and I enjoy his critiques of movies and tv shows, I am disagreeing with his video in some places, but I am not criticizing him, or even his other videos.
He says in the video that the difference between a video game and other forms of media, is choice, and bases his entire argument that thesis. My counter argument is that this thesis is wrong, the difference between a video game and most other types of media, is not "choice" but interactivity, and these are NOT the same thing. Let's take a more linear game as an example, the first video game I ever played, Super Mario Bros. 1985 (born the year I was, at least in US) If you ignore the warp zones, the only real choices are to jump over the hole, or jump into it and die, stomp on the goomba, or jump over it and run past it, not really much in the way of choice, but it IS interactive, challenging the player to overcome obstacles and in a way, through that challenge, making the player write his own story of overcoming those challenges, even if at heart, it's still a story about mario rescuing princess peach.
In early years of video games, when we moved from having pixels on a screen that were barely describable, video games began to fumble at a new form of storytelling that's never been done before in human history. We began to, through video games create worlds, primitive worlds, but worlds, made of pixels and colors and gave players a way of interacting with them... a way to touch and feel what came from another human being's imagination, and no other form of medium can really do that, at least not in the same way, and not usually without entering the grey area of that particular medium and video games, or some other kind of game at least.
I do feel that the medium is at its best when interactivity is given a high priority by the developers, but there are a lot of ways to go about it. Games could have no story at all, save the one told by the players as they go about their adventure, this is perfectly exemplified in Minecraft, a game which really thrives on reaching a high point in the potential of the medium, the game is truly interactive: You create your own dwelling, you live where you want, do what you want and you eat, sleep and work in this other world. Mass Effect on the other hand, tells a story in a very cinematic way, while integrating challenging combat, but does so in a very interactive way, in my opinion doing what a movie does but going far beyond by giving the players choices in the story that have very serious, and different outcomes, and giving them a lot of them. This isn't the first time this has been done, but in my opinion the Mass Effect series does this the best, and is the most notable example.
Many games today simply explore storytelling from a linear perspective while allowing the player to interact by running, jumping, climbing, swimming, solving puzzles, and very very often, by killing things. Even this is a unique means of storytelling not available in other mediums. The story may be linear and not have very many branching pathways, but it allows the player to "become" the hero or protagonist in the deepest level possible. I think everybody deserves that chance: to go on an adventure, to become or at least feel like, a hero. Maybe this reason is why I advocate strongly for diversity and inclusivity in video games. It's escapism yes, the ultimate form of escapism in our era to be exact, but that doesn't mean it's not art.
We could have gone the other way, we could have gone the rout of dragons layer, and simply expanded on "choices" and focused on creating games that were more like movies, telling a particular plot or storyline and offering the player a number of choices in order to take the story in his her or hir own direction, but we didn't, we chose to focus on motion, action and exploration, sometimes at the cost of story choices. There are games like that; especially text games, I know a number of people, especially those in queer community who enjoy those kind of games, but they are not my thing personally, and I would surmise from the way the industry has gone, most gamers enjoy exploration and combat as well. The truth is in my opinion, that Video games have a tactile element, you're touching the controller, and the buttons, or maybe a wii remote, but by interacting with the game through that... in a way you are interacting with the world, and in a way, you are actually touching that world.
I've gotten a bit off topic, I started on whether games are art or not and I've taken a side trip into the elements that make the medium unique. Getting back on topic here, what really makes high art? So far I've only heard two solid criteria that go beyond the basics of what makes any kind of art or human expression.
The first Criteria of so called High Art is social commentary, or some kind of insight into the human condition. Does Vivaldi give you insight into what it is to be human? Maybe his compositions do upon reflection. A piece of music without words makes no social commentary in any real, objective sense. Sure some pieces were written in a tumultuous time period and are indicative of that time they were written in in some ways, but I think the reason these pieces endure throughout the ages is because they speak to so much more than what they were written about.
Putting aside the legitimacy of this criteria for "High Art" don't video games already do this? Why else would so many people be having an internet wide discussion on how women are portrayed in video games?I'm going to talk about games that invoked a lot of thought and reflection from me and in doing so there are going to be a number of spoilers for the following games: Final Fantasy 6, Xenogears, and Tales of Symphonia. JRPGS I know, but these games made me think about a lot of stuff. Don't Judge me!
I was too young to understand it completely when I first played Final Fantasy six, but it taught me the meaning of morality in deeper terms than goodness and evil, niceness and cruelty. I couldn't for the life of me understand why the returners needed to differentiate their behavior from that of their enemy, the empire, and give Terra a choice, in joining them or not. They needed her didn't they? She's already there, why don't they just get moving?? It taught me that doing the right thing, took thought, and a moral code isn't just something you're born with, even if you're a nice person. It also taught me the horror of war, in a way, as it made me crash through the town of Narshe as an enslaved soldier... or perhaps one who was simply taught to loathe the enemy, only to then find myself among the people of this town, to experience the damage my own destruction had wrought from the other side. Finally it sealed my love of the term "Magic" as something more meaningful than just tricks and fireworks display, and on stage illusion, Magic in this game conjured wonder and horror, as it was portrayed as a force of nature so destructive that when wielded irresponsibly it could decimate the entire world. This sense of both awe and horror would stay with me for the rest of my life.
Xenogears taught me to see religion, and society in a number of different lights, while plenty of gnostic text was written into it's backstory, you also see an entire planet of nations and societies grow out of a single point in history, and seeing religion grow out of a function of ancient technology made me reflect on the limits of human perspective. What's more a technologically advanced nation used the rest of the world as a convenient and disposable proletariat. (At least this is how I remember it... this game DID have a very, perhaps overly elaborate plot, and it's been a long time since I've played it.) By the time I read 1984 in High School, some of these concepts were already very familiar to me.
Tales of Symphonia was perhaps for me, one of the most thought provoking games of all.for me, at least definitely the most so for this list. I was quite a bit older when I played this one, and so much more able to reflect on it in detail as i was playing it. During one of the times I played this game, George W Bush was in office and on his second term, and I detested this man with a seething passion. Playing the game however I realized something, he was the same thing as our heroes, or at least his followers were: Wild eyed idealists who's goals didn't always translate into reality. The characters in the game put a little more thought into it, but both did the same thing, they tried to achieve what they believed was right, and in doing so, made many, terrible mistakes, some of which costed many human lives. Here I was hating this man with all passion in my soul, while loving these characters for doing pretty much the same thing, simply pursuing their ideals without seeing the real consequences of their actions until it is too late. You might say this isn't what Bush did, that he KNEW the consequences of his actions, but even so, what about all the people that voted for him and believed in him?
If memorability is our criteria, then haven't we already achieved this as well? it's been almost 30 years, and we'll still talking about a plumber and a princess. Video games have made their way into our hearts and their not leaving. Most of us have still played Pacman, or Space Invaders. The word classic has been given to a number of old video games and it's being put there for good reason. something doesn't have to always be profound or thought provoking from a sociological or philosophical standpoint to stay in our hearts and minds and memories, and time and time again has proven this with countless other media besides video games.
We don't have folklore anymore, for the most part. We don't have Odysseus in the context we used to, and most of us aren't part of cultures that have heroes like Cu Chulainn. Hercules isn't someone we strive to be like, he's someone we talk about in english class. We have Superman and Batman, we have Harry Potter, we have the Doctor, and we have Mario, Link and Zelda, Commander Shepard.
When Roger Ebert said Video Games are not art, or that they will not grow to be art in his lifetime, I was actually hurt. I was so hurt I stopped wanting to know anything about his opinion on a movie. I hated him for a time. This is what got me dwelling on this topic in the first place. This is what got me looking at the medium as a whole, whom grew up alongside me, like an old friend. This is what made me reflect on what it means to call something art, or even "high art." I often hear this criticism from those who will likely never have the kind of passion for the medium that I do.
People didn't consider van gogh, to be art at one point and time. People didn't consider impressionism to be art. People didn't consider movies to be art. The definition of art evolves with our society. Perhaps some new medium will appear in my lifetime and I will scoff at it without realizing it's true potential as well, though I hope my mind will be open. Maybe I already have, have you read my post about mobile games?
I've asked this question here but we didn't reflect on it well enough. I guess anyone who reads what I write is either a gamer, or one of my friends, most of whom, to some degree or another, are gamers, or at least play games from time to time. They have to be, I mean look how much passion I have for the subject to go on and on about it for so long, people who don't have an interest in it will find that simply boring.
I think the question I need to ask you all is not whether video games are art, because I only got a yes or no answer from that, instead perhaps a better question is WHY are video games art? What makes you believe in them? What makes you see video games as art? If you don't see them that way, then why not?
First of all the ps4 takes a huge swing at Xbox One, allowing used games, no BS internet connection requirement, no bs camera watching you 24 hours a day... NEVER BLINKING. Not backwards compatible to my knowledge, this may be an issue for some and I'd certainly criticize them for it, but since I don't have a ps3 and haven't had a working ps2 in years, it's less of an issue for me. If I ever get a console besides Wii U for this gen, it'll be the ps4. It was a good relationship while it lasted xbox, but you've changed, you're not the console I fell in love with, and it's time for us to say goodbye.
A lot of square enix reveals, KH 3 and ff 15... I have to say I'm a little bit distrustful of square enix. I actually adored final fantasy 12, in spite of fan criticism, but that was long ago already, and SE has given us a number of reasons not to trust them since them. I've lost faith... I have my hopes up for this "bravely default: flying fairy" on 3ds that it will be a decent turn based rpg, due to the fact that it's departing from rehashing final fantasy, but I really wonder if I shouldn't just brace for another letdown.
Nintendo did a lot of reveals, for me the most noteworthy are Bayonetta 2, the new trailer for the upcoming zelda game, and of course, the new smash bros. I'm a little bit disappointed they didn't seem so far, to take the series in too much of a new direction. I'd been wanting to do a speculation article on smash bros for some time, and now it's finally been announced. ( I TOTALLY called MEGAMAN I CALLED IT but now nobody will believe me)
There is a great deal of room for speculation left with smash bros however, only a few characters have actually been revealed, and nothing about items, and gameplay modes or other features. Peach and Zelda have yet to be seen, but it's fair to surmise they will be in the game, but what about rumored characters? There is a modest chance of palutena making an appearance due to the popularity of kid icarus uprising and her popularity as a character. It IS possible nintendo is making an active effort to include more female characters.
Another possibility I think is worth speculating are skins. For example although we see the male villager, it would be easy to make a female skin for the same character with the same moves and abilities, provided they have basically the same proportions for hit detection. By extension of this, a lot of things can be done, link can be Toon Link OR Young Link, adult Link could don the Zora Armor, or that awful rupee sucking red thing, the Pokemon trainer could be a boy or a girl, indeed, Marth could be Lucina (please please can we have Lucina?) However I must warn you that if you like this Idea, it's fair to surmise it WON'T be incorporated or we might have seen some form of it in the video, I hope to be proven wrong, but I warn you that if you like this Idea or thought of something similar, please don't get your hopes up just yet...
So what are your thoughts people? What are you expecting, or hoping to see in Smash Bros?
This is a trigger warning in regards to misogyny in gaming culture, please take care when reading this post, if that affects you.
I usually don't reblog things like this, as it can be triggering in regards to misogyny and male privilege, but this kind of thing really DOES upset me a lot. I'm a girl and a gamer. I "Was" a straight guy, at one point in life. I wasn't really but I lived as one, in the shoes of one, if you will, and my mom and others when arguing about me and my desire to transition, used my love of video games as "proof" that I wasn't a real girl. That's BS I know that today, and I love video games just as much as I did all those years ago.
I already told you I'm not that up in arms about the sexual art styles of a lot of games, I'd like to see more gender equality, but I don't have a problem with sexualization in fiction over all, but I really like playing as a female character. In real life I had to assert my gender, I had to beg doctors to give me a prescription for it... It was important enough to me to fight my family, move out of home into a situation of poverty, and go through hell to be a girl in real life, so yeah, being a girl is kind of important to me.
Being able to play as girl in a game, does not make or break a game for me, but it IS a big deal. I play "guys games." I'm not really out to change gaming forever and ever, because oh my god the gaming world is soooo awful, I'm not complaining about the core culture of the gaming industry for the most part... but I am calling out for more inclusivity, not just for women, but for lgbt characters and people of color, because it matters, because it feels good to play a character that "feels" like you, and because it changes people's perception of a particular group of people. Being trans really teaches someone the relevance of gender in an experience and of visibility for any race or group or minority, and how it affects people's perception of you.
I'm just asking for more women heroes and more diverse characters... that shouldn't be so damn hard and it should be so damn forbidden. I'm sorry for posting this, this blog is supposed to be fun, but when you're a girl gamer, you deal with shit like this, and it's frustrating. Later I'll make a more positive post about female characters I really enjoyed playing. For now, I'm just holding out till Nintendo's E3 Conference u_u
