user's Blog!

Evolution of Left 4 Dead's Versus Playing Style

user — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

st. louis gaming law

user — Thu, 02 May 2002 23:10:15 +0000

So there are some interesting issues going on with gaming. A judge in St. Louis decided that videogames don't contain ideas and so aren't provided free speech protection. According to one article Judge Limbaugh (yes he is related to Rush Limbaugh although I don't think we should be punished for who we are related to) didn't even play the games he just watched films of them. In his ruling he said that videogames showed, "no conveyance of ideas, expression or anything else that could possibly amount to free speech. ... Video games have more in common with board games and sports than they do with motion pictures." Now anyone who knows my research should know that I totally agree with his observation that they don't have much in common with films. However, the notion that videogames don't contain ideas is silly. Similarly that board games don't contain ideas and expressions is probably news to the makers of the Life As a Black Man Game. There are some interesting takes on this available at joystick101.org [edit added in Feb of 2009 -- unfortunately it looks like that link is lost to the sands of time http://www.joystick101.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2002/4/26/11129/1665 ) and penny arcade's Lawyer of Doom. The second issue is the guy who killed 18 people in a school shooting. Notice I said guy, not kid. People are blaming counterstrike and saying that he was a kid. He wasn't he was 19. He was a member of 2 gun clubs and his parents didn't even know that he was kicked out of school. But its those damn videogames fault. WHo's fault is it that people are calling him a kid? It looks like German media is palying the moral panic card and is placing the blame for the violence squarely on the shoulders of those awful videogames, allegedly calling counterstrike, "Software for a massacre." So once again its those damn videogames to blame. They make people so violent. That's why LAN parties always break out into violence and sporting events don't, right? Oh wait... I don't remember any fights at LAN parties. But I seem to remember Lots of fights at sporting evens. Can it be that the media is scaring us about the wrong thing????

What is "violent?" What isn't "violent?" Who decides?

user — Sat, 11 May 2002 19:47:42 +0000

I posted this rant on joystick101.org as well as, in a slightly different form, at kuro5hin.org. But here is it again. My thoughts on a recent bill to outlaw the sale of "violent" videogames to minors. On May 2, Congressman Joe Baca (D-California) introduced H.R. 4645, The Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2002. The bill would penalize those who sell or rent "violent" video games to a minor. Some of their reasons for proposing this are: the video games aren't free speech ruling, the Germany shooting (even though that man was 19 and thus not a minor as well as the fact that there is already a similar law in Germany) and a report that "found" that "violent" videogames cause violence (despite the fact that there other reports that found no link). The language Baca used in the press release is pure moral panic. "I'm a parent and grandparent, and I've had enough of the violence we're experiencing among our youth," Baca said. "We saw it at Columbine High School, and we saw it last week in Germany." "Do you really want your kids assuming the role of a mass murderer or car jacker while you are away at work?" And referencing the St. Louis decision he says, "The courts have finally decided what every parent already knows - that video games containing ultra violent depictions of murder, rape, and assault have no place in the hands of our children." The ignorance evident in the St. Louis decision as been discussed elsewhere. However, the ignorance of this proposed law bears discussion. Whether or not children should be allowed access to these games is not the issue I wish to discuss. The issues are whether or not the government should be the one to decide this debate and what is considered "violent" and why. To the best of my knowledge (and I would be thrilled if anyone can prove me wrong) there is no federal law enforcing movie ratings. The movie ratings board is a self-imposed regulatory body. It is the movie theaters and video renters/sellers who decide who can see a "violent" film and who cannot, not the federal government. If this is true, the videogame industry already has ratings. The industry simply needs to enforce them. Why should the film industry be allowed to self-regulate and the videogame industry should not? By outlawing the sales of "violent" videogames to minors, the government will nullify these ratings. What is "violent" and who gets to decide? Is Madden 2002 violent? How do we know if they consider that violent or not? According to the proposed law it might be considered violent under the "aggravated assault or battery" limitation. This law opens up the floodgates and makes it very hard for a game development company to make sure that they do not make a game that is considered "too violent." With the industry regulated ratings board there is prior knowledge. The makers and retailers find out that the game is "violent" before it goes to the store, and therefore know what they are getting themselves into. With a law, the makers, and perhaps more importantly, the retailers will not know if a game is "too violent" until they get busted by some undercover police officer with nothing better to do. This issue of violence gets to a deeper issue. In all likelihood, Madden 2002 would not be considered "too violent." Why? Because it is "just football." In American society (and probably in much of western society as well, although I am no expert on international culture), sports are naturalized. We consider them harmless. Even more than that, we encourage children to participate in them saying that they will be morale builders and the like. However, let us stop a moment and think about what actually happens during a contact, "masculine" sport like football (both kinds), basketball or hockey. How do players hype themselves up for the game, how to they refer to their opponents? "Let's kill 'em! Let's rip their heads off! Let's destroy them!" So here we have an activity that involves actual real violence, hitting one another and face to face trash talking and yet we do not seem concerned that this will lead to other acts of violence? But we have these mediated, virtual enactments and we are concerned? Real violence does not cause more violence, but virtual violence does? The worst injury I have ever heard of at a LAN party is carpal tunnel! How often do fights break out at LAN parties? How often do they break out at sporting events? Remind me again which one of these causes violence? This is not to suggest that I think we should outlaw sports. Not at all. It is to show a point. Sports are considered part of our society. They have been since ancient times. So the thought that these may cause violence does not even occur to most people. However, these damn kids and their videogames. Now that is another story. Videogames are a new medium and they are a new entrant into our culture. Hence the moral panic surrounding them. Remember what rap was supposed to do to our kids? Remember what heavy metal was supposed to do? Remember rock and roll? There have been moral panics about technology dating all the way back to the popularization of the printing press. What is going on here is nothing different and as such we should try to see through the moralistic, "what about the children!?!" hype and see that the real issues here are not "should children be prevented from buying violent videogames?" but "Do we need a law to prevent children from buy violent videogames?" "Who decides what 'violent' is?" and "Why is that considered violent when there are so many other things in society that aren't?"

Is it Art?

user — Thu, 16 Jan 2003 14:04:09 +0000

I'm reposting this from my old site as a test of the archives: Since games and art is being discussed quite a bit lately I thought I might post an article I wrote a couple months ago, but never got around to posting. But is it Art? In recent years many advances have come to the world of videogames. The visuals have become ever more photorealistic and the gameplay has become more refined to name just two. However, there has been at least one area where videogames have not advanced, and that area is, as one may guess from the title is, ?Are videogames art?? The answer to this question really depends upon whom you ask. This,of course,is part of the problem in coming up with a definative answer to this question. Ask ten people to define art and you will get ten different answers. As one saying goes, ?I can't define art, but I know it when I see it.? Art is subjective and so each person has their own definition of what art is, and depending upon that definition, they will draw their own conclusion as to whether videogames are art. By looking at both sides of this question, it may be seen that it is not videogames that are flawed, but rather the question itself. Instead of asking, ?Is it art?? perhaps we should ask ourselves, ?Why do we care?? and ?Why do they need to be?? On one side of the ?Is it art?? issue, there are those who would say, ?No.? A person who claims that videogames are not art most likely has a narrow definition of art. A narrow definition of art typically includes only the most ?high culture? and refined styles. Mona Lisa and Motzart are likely to be their standards of art. They are not interested in ?art?,but ?Art? with a capital ?A,? the kind that has velvet ropes in front of it, and people with snooty accents. Obviously, what such a narrow and stuffy definition of art does, however, is to clasify things. What is decreed as being Art is good and distinguished, what is not Art is trash, lower class and common. However, this attitude serves a broader purpose of classifying the classifier. If a person passes judgemnet on a work by decreeing that it is or is not art, what is really happening is not a passing of judgement on the work, but the classifyer is really attempting to prove that they have a more refined taste than others, that they are better than other people. So to say that something is not art really says more about the person who is making the distinction than the actual distinction itself. So to say that something is not art is an elitist move that only serves to reinforce the closed culture of old money and snobbery. Besides, do you think that the majority of people who regularly partake of high Art would ever acqnowledge the artistry of Quake? To say that videogames are in fact art is to take a wider, more pragmatic view of the term art. It is to say that art is a term that is subjective. A wider definition of art implies that nearly anything can be art and that art is any creative human act. However, this definition still classifies beteen art and not art, even if only in broader manner. To call something art is still to pass judgement on it. This is why it seems that the question, ?Are videogames art?? should be thrown out. There are other questions that are more pertanant. Why does it matter if it is art? What does it get the gaming community? Who benefits from calling it art and why? All of these are questions that need to be asked when one tries to argue the ?Is it Art?? question. It does not seem that much if anything is gained by videogames being classified as art. A bit of respect perhaps, but there are those that will never accept the form as art, because they are too narrow minded, and too entranched in the old ways of defining art. If one feels strongly that videogames need to be considered art in order to gain respect, perhaps what is really going on is that someone feels a bit ashamed of their hobby and is in need of something to help raise their self esteeme. If that is the case, then there are more serious questions than whether or not videogames are art. And if it is true that one of the reasons that the gaming community wants to be considered art is for respect or a self esteme boost, then I sincerely doubt that being considered art will solve those problems. A question that needs to be asked then, is not ?Is it Art?? but ?Why do we care??

reposted from my old blog Friday, October 31, 2003

user — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 12:52:06 +0000

So I'm getting ready to go to a LAN party this weekend to do some ethnography as well as kick some ass. I figure that's as good an excuse as any to catch up on some of the games I haven't gotten around to buying yet. However installing these games reminds me of one of my greatest frustrations with installing games that come on multiple cd's. I have more than one cd drive. Why won't many (not all) games let me put install disk in one drive and disk two in the other? What is wrong with these people? Dear Game Developers, Stop pissing me off. Let me use both of my cd drives when I install your games. Thank You. Some games do this and I applaud them. However those that don't piss me off. So stop it. Also of note is that many many articles are publicizing the new lawsuit against the makers of grand theft auto due to the shooting without noting that Jack Thompson is a man with an anti-videogame agenda whose lawsuits have all done nothing but line his pockets thus far. That's good journalism there boys.

Test

user — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 20:49:54 +0000

test test test sibilance sibilance

another test

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 00:15:32 +0000

more testing testing test

w.bloggar test

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:14:26 +0000

so here is another test. this time to see if w.bloggar works

Now that the semester is

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:15:09 +0000

Now that the semester is over, for better or worse, i'm still feeling that i have things i should be doing. I'm desperately trying to fill the time by playing games, but there is still a lingering guilt that i should be working. With that in mind, i've been thinking about Duke Nukem. WIth the news that Duke Nukem Forever is still not done, I suppose its timely, but i have been thinking about how the duke is represented in videogames. It all started with a conversation that i had with a friend who is working on a paper about men playing games like tomb raider that feature women. of course that brings up laura mulvey, identification and the like. I've always argued that in most first-person shooters there is no identification because for all intents and purposes there is no real character. The main exception being duke. That got me to thinking about characters within FPS games. Outside of Duke name the main characters of FPS games. There's (and right now as i write this i can't think of his name... says something about how memorable he is... ok i remember) Gordan Freeman from half-life, Caleb from blood, and ummmm.... doomguy from doom, space marine from quake, convict from unreal, that cop guy from sin, that miner guy in red faction, what's his name, the real mercenary from soldier of fortune. and lots of others even less memorable Now anyone that reads this site often should know that i'm not about to whine about how we need great characters in games. Blech. I play games to shoot things. No the question is what makes duke better? Well, i think that if you look at the history of duke the difference becomes obvious. Duke originated not in the realm of FPS games, but in the side scroller -- a medium where you could see the character, and by my estimation a medium that actually HAS characters. The most recognizable character in a FPS did not even originate in a FPS. This makes a lot of sence to me. like i said, i don't think that we need strong fully fleshed out main characters in FPS games. WE are the character after all. the nagging problem has always been duke but that duke existed before the FPS was invented explains a lot. Duke nukem really isn't a FPS character. he is a character that has had a FPS built around him. Since duke nukem 3d came out there have been duke nukem games, but they have all been genres other than FPS games. I think that is where duke might belong. after all, thats where he started.

Reposted from my old site

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:16:13 +0000

Here once again with what is quite possibly my last post of the year. sniff. sniff. And what a year its been. To continue my trend of reviewing a book as I go, let me offer a few quick thoughts on The Video Game Theory Reader. It is an interesting and worthy read. It is leaps and bounds better than the last book Mark J.P Wolf edited, Medium of the Video Game which I did not like at all. The Reader is a larger book and much more of a true anthology than the other book. Overall, there is still too much reliance on film theory and psychoanalysis in some of the articles for my tastes. It also uses the Term "video game" rather than "videogame" which I understand is a personal nit pick, but it still irritates me. I'm about half way through it. I plan on sitting down most of the day tomorrow and reading a big chunk of it. I went home for Christmas and when I came back, what should be waiting for me but more goodies! I got a copy of the DIGRA Level Up Conference Proceedings. For those of us in North America, it can be quite pricey as they want a wire transfer and the conversion rates combined with the fee for a wire transfer drives the price up. I went in with 3 other people and it ended up being $42 a person, but it is worth it. The book is over 400 pages long and in addition it comes with a CD with 49 more papers in .pdf form. If each of them is ten pages long, that's nearly 900 pages of videogame theory goodness! Go buy it now!

Violence and Misconceptions

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:16:37 +0000

Happy New Year. I was over at Metafilter and they had a post about how Penny Arcade's Child's Play didn't get the media coverage they expected. As these things somehow usually tend to go, a comment was made that mentioned game titles like, ""Back Alley Rapist" or "Innocent Citizen Pummel-Fest" or "Arson Party 2004" or "Digi-Chicks n' Tits" " and then a follow-up post that said, "These games that allow players to beat cops, rape prostitutes, stomp innocent people and anything else of the ilk are absolutely irresposible and disgusting." My first response was to post a comment, but since metafilter isn't letting new people join I couldn't, so I did the next best thing and wrote about it here. Arson???? Raping Prostitutes??? Is there ANY game EVER that features actions such as this??? If so, please tell me. Now I don't want to take this guy to task. He is not alone in holding these ideas about videogames. I have heard the thing about raping more than once. I am assuming that this guy is referring to Grand Theft Auto III. However, if there is any raping in the game, I have yet to find it yet. Again, if there is, let me know. There is also the big bad guy of beating cops. Yes you can beat cops. But as far as I have played the game, that is not the point. Are there ANY missions in Grand Theft Auto III that directly involve violence against the police? If there is I haven't gotten to them/it yet. The thing that frustrates me is that over at metafilter, while people are attempting to correct him, as of yet, no one has pointed out the factual errors in his assertions. Let me be clear, as someone who has been playing videogames since PONG, who subscribes to 3 different videogame magazines, watches G4TV, X-Play on TechTV and who considers myself a videogame expert, To the best of my knowledge, there are NO games that feature arson, or rape. Yes you can have consensual sex with prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto III, yes you can kill anyone, including police and prostitutes even if you have just had sex with them, but those features are NOT the point of the games. In fact I had heard so much about this getting a prostitute and then killing her to get your money back feature, I tried to do it, and I couldn't figure out how to do it! (Of course there is always the possibility that I am just a little dense) That these rumors persist points to a serious issue with how many people perceive videogames. Here we have one game, two if yo could Vice City, that involves the ability to kill people including officers and prostitutes and yet we have people decrying ALL videogames. If you are going to be against Grand Theft Auto III, then fine, be against that game, but do not assume that all games are the same, and please, if you are going to say negative things, then at least be factually correct. More important, if you witness someone saying things about videogames that are exaggerations or are simply factually wrong, call them on it. Tell them that they are wrong, ask them for a clarification, ask them to name the games that they are talking about. Now I am aware that to a certain extent I am preaching to the choir. Most regular readers of this blog (assuming I have regular readers, that is) know this. Regular readers, hypothetical or not, also know that I have a facination with Google, and one of my main goals in posting this is that by mentioning GTA and violence and rape that the mighty Google algorithm will pick up this post and maybe just maybe at least one person who really does think that there are videogames that include rape will see that otherwise. Finally, it really amazes me that people are so concerned and afraid and reactionary about videogames. In an attempt to see if maybe there really was some sort of rape in GTA that I just hadn't seen yet.I did a google search for: video game rape prostitute. Go to google and search for those terms. That web sites use those terms to get hits, and that people might use those terms in looking for web sites like that is "10,000 times worse than the worst thing" that happens in ANY videogame.

The Video Game Theory Reader discussed

user — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 02:28:42 +0000

I was getting ready to sit down and write my review for The Video Game Theory Reader and I thought I'd look around and see what others have said about it. I ran across a message board with some interesting reviews of some of the articles over at Matt Barton's site. As for my own thoughts on the book, let me just say that it is an interesting book. A bit too film based for my tastes. Like any anthogy, a couple articles rock, a few are just average and the rest are just lame. There are a couple more lame articles than I would like, but overall it is worth reading. more coming...

American Mcgee's Cut Scene

user — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 21:54:25 +0000

I started playing today. Them kids sure love cut scenes don't they? Well, I hate them. I would like to be able to play more than two minutes at a time without watching some stupid movie. I know, I know, I sound like a broken record. I just can't get over how frustrating I find them. The game thus far is rather unremarkable. I am not real confortable at how the game has sexualized a little girl. Alice is all gothy and has this seductive voice. ...and she's what? 12? Nice.

Video Game Documentary

user — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 06:50:51 +0000

GSN (that's the new hip cool name of the Game Show Network) is going to show a documentary about videogames. has a press release that 'VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION' will premiere Sunday March 21 at 9P.M. ET/PT. Since I KNow Yahoo doens't keep new stories around forever, here is the entire press release:

Game Show Network Premieres Two Hour Documentary 'VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION' Friday January 9, 5:00 pm ET Documentary Hosted By Pro Skateboarder and Video Game Star Tony Hawk And Premieres Sunday March 21 at 9P.M. ET/PT SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- GSN, the network for games (formerly Game Show Network) will premiere its second documentary, VIDEO GAME INVASION: THE HISTORY OF A GLOBAL OBSESSION. This documentary will cover the creation and evolution of video games, and will be narrated by skateboard and video game icon Tony Hawk. VIDEO GAME INVASION will debut Sunday, March 21 from 9 to 11 PM ET/PT. The announcement was made today by Rich Cronin, President and CEO, GSN, as part of the network's Television Critics Association presentation. In making the announcement, Cronin said: "Video games have had such an enormous impact on popular culture and on the leisure time of young people that we felt it was important to document the birth and growth of this amazing entertainment phenomenon. The video game industry now generates 20 billion dollars in annual revenues, and the profile of the average gamer is changing. Some 41% of computer gamers are women and more than half of all players are over 18, demonstrating the continued expansion in popularity." "We knew that to do justice to the amazing thrill ride that is the video-game industry, we had to capture all the drama, the intrigue, the scope, even the humor that's been part of the industry from the beginning," says David Comtois, executive producer. Adds David Carr, executive producer, "And as producers of numerous personality-driven documentaries, we knew that the best way to accomplish that was through the human element. All these folks were off-the-wall, wildly colorful pioneers in a business with no boundaries. We couldn't have asked for better subjects!" Hosted by Tony Hawk, world champion skateboarder and co-creator of such hit video games as "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" and "Tony Hawk's Underground," VIDEO GAME INVASION explores the creation of video games in an entertaining and comprehensive fashion. Taking viewers through the maze of games that comprised the evolution of video gaming, VIDEO GAME INVASION focuses on the impact of the human element, and the behind the scenes competition between these impassioned geniuses who create video games. Bold and irreverent, VIDEO GAME INVASION delves into the fascinating world of tech-heads as they pushed the technological envelope to create such breakthrough early games as Pong and Space Invaders, and subsequently emerged with the huge international corporations that now dominate the multi-billion dollar video game industry. Paying homage to those unique individuals for pushing the game envelope and making the industry what it is today, VIDEO GAME INVASION takes us on an adventure through the phenomenon of video games and explains why they have become a global obsession. VIDEO GAME INVASION will be sponsored by Planters. VIDEO GAME INVASION is executive produced by David Carr and David Comtois of Beantown Productions, and includes interviews of Nolan Bushnell, former CEO of Atari, Al Alcorn, former Vice President of Atari and designer of "Pong," Seamus Blackley, CAA agent who leads their video game division and former CTO and lead designer for Microsoft Xbox, John Romero, CEO of Monkeystone Games and co-creator of "Doom" and "Quake," and many other industry pioneers. Beantown Productions, founded by David Carr and David Comtois, is a leading independent production company and an acclaimed TV advertising and marketing powerhouse. The company's recent TV production credits include Lifetime Television's Operation Style; AMC's Behind the Planet of the Apes; The Alien Saga and 20th Century Fox: The First Fifty Years; A&E's Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies and Hugh Hefner: American Playboy; and the Fox Family Channel's LeoMania. On the film side, the company recently handled editing and post production work for Family Tree, a semi-autobiographical short from Oscar-winning Shrek director Vicky Jenson. Beantown Productions is based in Los Angeles with offices in New York City. GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing. The network features game shows, reality series, documentaries, video game programs and casino games. As the industry leader in interactivity, GSN features 84 hours per week of interactive programming, which allows viewers a chance to win prizes by playing along with GSN's televised games via gsn.com. Reaching 54 million Nielsen homes, GSN is distributed in the U.S. through all major cable systems and satellite providers. The network is jointly owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Liberty Media Corporation. For further media information, visit GSN's press website at corp.gsn.com.

Should be worth a look. I know I'll pop a tape in and copy it and add it to my collection.

A Request

user — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:23:56 +0000

What would be really nice would be a web site that reviews videogames and tells me which platform is the best for a specific game. I've got a PC and I've got an X-Box. So when a game is available for both of them it often becomes difficult to decide which to buy. Sure a game like Tony Hawk will almost certainly be better on X-Box because of the controller. However, what about a game like Deus Ex 2 or Prince of Persia? or Knights of the Old Republic? Someone make up my mind for me!!!

wonky is a word. really

user — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 06:54:11 +0000

The site seems to be acting wonky. It works if you go to popularculturegaming.com but not www.popularculturegaming.com. That worked up untill the other day. I didn't mess with anything. I'm not sure if dot.tk is screwed up or my host is screwed up or if I broke something. But I didn't touch it, I swear!

My favorite lawyer...

user — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 06:20:46 +0000

Well, we all knew it wouldn't be long before I had to bring up my favorite lawyer, Jack Thompson, could it? I was surfing around for new videogame blogs and ran across buzzcut.com. According to a post on the site, Jack Thompson took part in a debate. A student emailed him about his stance on issues of regulation and such. Not surprizingly, according to the post, Jack is in favor of lawsuits. What? A lawyer in favor of lawsuits? So am I correct in saying that Jack Thompson who seems so concerned about children and videogame violence would rather wait untill something bad happens so that he can sue rather than pass laws and prevent something bad from happening? You mean that it is possible that his motives aren't the most altruistic in the world? Who knew?

Gamers a Documentary

user — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:00:44 +0000

I purchased Gamers: A Documentary back before Thanksgiving. I usually review books as soon as I finish reading them. For some reason it didn't occur to me to review this documentary untill just before Christmas. I submitted it to an online journal some fellow Bowling Green alums are running called Reconstruction. The review is now up. So head over to Reconstruction and read my review. You might as well read the whole site as well. They're smart kids doing interesting work. Rock on.

I study things that people actually do

user — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 07:33:30 +0000

Over at Thinking With My Fingers, there is a post about academics having to justify their research. I must be pretty lucky. I really don't recall ever having to justify studying videogames and people who play them. Maybe it is a matter of being in the right academic climates. I really do not see how I should have to justify my research when I run into people studying 17th century left handed poets. People are playing videogames at this very moment. Can people who are resistant to videogame research say the same thing about their work? Are people spending hours a day engaging with it? As I always seem to do in questions like this, rather than attempt to justify something which seems infinitely more relevant than 75% of the things I see going on at most universities, I have to ask why people care what other people think of their research. Basically, if you don't like what I'm doing based soley on the principle that it is not a valid subject, then there is a pretty damn good chance that I think you are an elitist ass and your opinion doesn't matter to me anyway. While I love being in school, there are certainly enough elitist snobs here, they can go hang out with each other, they don't need to bother me. Now, if you don't like my work because you think it is inferior or flawed or just plain bad work, but the subject material is valid, that is another matter. I make no claims to my work being good, just valid and relevant.

I'm Dreaming of a White Dungeon

user — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 23:56:59 +0000

Since the weather here is frightful, I thought I would give a little update on my reading material. I finished Dungeons & Dreamers recently and found it to be interesting and entertaining, if a bit scattered in its focus. Like Masters of Doom, it is a non-academic historical look at gaming, with particular interest paid to RPG's specifically the role that Dungeons and Dragons and the Ultima series had in the development of videogaming. I might write up a formal review for Reconstruction, the web journal that published me last review, so I won't go into too much detail here. Let me just say that I found the first half that focused on Garriot to be very interesting and once it moved away from him I found it to be rather fragmented in focus and not nearly as personal or as interesting. It is a good light read and fun. I think I would recommend Masters of Doom over it. However, that may be simply due to my stronger interest in FPS games than RPGs.

insert witty comment here

user — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 23:47:24 +0000

I read Sarah Thornton's Club Cultures again the other day. I read it first three years ago before I decided to turn my interest in videogames into my vocation. It and Dick Hebdidge's Subculture make interesting reading. While reading them I couldn't help but think about videogame players. Are videogame players a subculture? WHat consists of subcultural capital for a gamer? I think that obviously he who has the best computer has a certain amount of capital. Also, there is a certain amount of bragging rights to being able to say that you played Counter-Strike earlier than the other guys (beta 3 baby!). But is that enough to make a subculture? I don't know. I am not sure what calling gamers a subculture gets me and my research. If gamers are a subculture, then so what? Is this a question worth pursuing? Is a label meaningful? Is it useful? I'm not sure. Something to think about.

work is so hard!

user — Sat, 14 Feb 2004 06:00:48 +0000

I've started doing my ethnographic work here. I spent the evening playing Counter-Strike with a handful of gamers. It was interesting to get to play against experienced players again (I was the worst one there) as well as to put on my ethnographer hat and study them. My little research subjects. I spent three hours playing. So what was the first thing I did when I got home? Started playing Grand Theft Auto. Maybe there is something to this videogame addiction thing.

MTV does videogames

user — Sat, 14 Feb 2004 18:07:11 +0000

Over at Gamegirladvance, there is an article about MTV using game footage in videos. Actually, it seems that all the examples that people have are EA games. So rather than MTV getting into gaming, is EA getting into videos becasue I'm sure they don't care if it is MTV or MuchMusic or Fuse that airs their promotional material, just as long as it gets aired. Of course it is also probably the case of big corporation EA getting into bed with (presumably) even bigger corporation Viacom. I saw one of the MTV/EA segments and left this post over at gamegirladvance:

Recently MTV has been jumping on the videogame bandwagon. They had a videogame countdown show and more recently a "Video Mods" show which took videogame footage and set it to music. I found a link that talked about it here.
The one video I saw was a remix of N.E.R.D. song, which is of course fronted by Pharrell of the Neptunes and is of African decent. Number of non-whites in the "video mod"? zero.

90% of everything

user — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 21:52:03 +0000

I've had some free moments in the past couple days so i've started reading some videogame studies articles I've been meaning to get around to. Some of them are pretty good. But lots of them are not. To be nice. I know it isn't a new observation, but 90% of everything is crap. Now that videogame studies seems to be the hip new thing (I was here first posers! ;-) ) there is more and more to read and more and more of it seems less than earth shattering. Of course many may say that of my work, but I'm not naming any names here so be kind! It is kind of sad though to see the field filling with mediocrity. Of course I was pleasently surprized when the Popular Culture Association program was put online. There are several videogame panels. Quite a big difference from two years ago in Toronto when there were three of us videogame people on one panel. Of course, there is that 90% of everything is crap and the PCA has certainly adhered to that rule the two times I've gone in the past. Oh well, I can be that ass in the audience who askes rude obnoxious questions.

I'm too busy doing original research to play some silly game!

user — Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:37:10 +0000

It looks like for the foreseeable future my Friday nights will be spent playing Counter-Strike. All in all, there are worse things I could be doing. I like CS a lot. What I'm going is some ethnography on a group of guys (and they are guys) who play CS in a lab on campus on a regular basis. Of course, I'm not just playing, but observing, and interviewing people. That is where it gets interesting. I've turned my hobby into a job. I know that I'm not the first to observe this, but interesting things happen when you turn your hobby into a job. As I said, I like Counter-Strike. And it is fun to play with other people face to face. I'm new to this university, so it is nice to meet some folks outside my department as well. However, because I'm studying these people (and myself just as much) it isn't just fun and games, but it is work. Playing Counter-Strike on Friday nights is a job. Certainly, I haven't got a lot to complain about. As a graduate student, I am getting paid to play videogames and hang out with people. However, the dynamic is different now that this is for an external purpose -- that is my dissertation and the ethnography class I am currently taking. A group of my friends were getting together to play some cards that same night and I couldn't because I had to go observe people. So of course when I did stop by the card game around midnight (I know, I left the gaming early!) the first thing I told them was that I would have been there earlier, but I was out doing original research and I didn't have time to sit around all night and play silly games. Well, I thought it was funny. But it points out that taking on this project means that I have to make some (however small) sacrifices. My point in this is not to complain. I know I'm pretty lucky. It is as a warning. Think about it before you turn your hobby into a job because when you do, it changes things. in four years (hopefully!) when I finish this dissertation, I certainly hope that I won't be burned out on playing videogames. Of course if I am, that will just be another chapter for the dissertation, "How Studying Videogame Players Made Me Burn Out and Never Want to Play another Videogame Ever Again."

Videogame Studies Gets All High Falutin'

user — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 17:15:52 +0000

An article appeared in the New York Times today titled "The Ivy-Covered Console". It is an interesting read. There are several things about it that irritate me, however. I will try to get to some of them later, however, let me mention something included in it that I had never thought of before. In the article, they mention that some videogame researchers are doing what they call, "close gameplay," "in which a researcher plays critical scenes of a game repeatedly, analyzing the details, perhaps searching for an anomaly the programmers have buried in the code or simply arriving at some resolution." This is the first I've heard of this. Does anyone actually do this? And if so, what do you get out of it? It seems to be a very odd thing to me. If anyone out there practices "close gameplay" let me hear about it.

RANT Uppity Research Makes the Baby Mario Cry! RANT

user — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 14:31:02 +0000

So this is going to be a rant inspired by the article Ivy-Covered Console. I am glad that our work is getting some press, but it seems that this article is built on some frustrating biases. First, let me say it. We all know that the only reason that this conference that the article is about is not the first videogame conference, nor is it the biggest. Yet it gets coverage in the New York Times which spends a lot of money with commercials trying to convince me to have it delivered to me even though I live in Indiana. Sure lots of people think the New York Times is hot shit, so in some ways it is great that this article exists. Of course the only reason why it exists is that this conference is taking place at an Ivy-League School. So at the heart of this article is elitism. Something I have little patience for. What do you expect from someone that has a Master's degree in Popular Culture? Again, I suppose I should be thankful that this isn't yet another article that talks about how evil videogames are and features lots of unchallenged quotes from my favorite lawyer, Jack Thompson. However, much of what is written in this article just makes me sad if this is what the future of videogame studies holds. I originally wrote a blow by blow account of why I dislike this article, however, I figured that came of as bitter for even me. The article is basically an exercise in elitism written for an elitist paper. That is my problem with the article. In my opinion, videogames and videogame studies should not try to emulate elitist, exclusionary practices of the ivory tower. One sample passage reads, "Video-game studies is still a nascent field, too young to have a standard list of must-play games..." No, no, no. Lists are for suckers. Literature departments have spent decades realizing that their cannons were too narrow. Let us not have a cannon. A cannon by its very nature is exclusionary. So what if we all thing that Half-Life is the best thing ever and Codename: Nina is crap, but does that mean that we shouldn't at least look at it and figure out how such crap came to be? Obviously there are only a certain number of games that one person can play, but the minute we, as academics, start making up a cannon of videogames, then we are putting up walls and limits. There is tons an tons of crap out there, but crap is worth looking at. If we have to start using a cannon to tell ourselves which games are "worthy" of out time, then we might as well go back to more traditional fields. Then the article goes on to talk about Aristotle and Shakespeare. Now I know the writer of the article is not only trying to write an article about why videogames are worthy of study but is also trying to justify to his readers why videogame studies is worthy of having an article in the oh so prestigious New York Times. However, call me narrow minded, but there is a reason why I left my career in the English Department behind and part of that reason is so that I don't need to talk about white guys who died before the light bulb was invented. Drawing on those names is an obvious attempt to justify our work, not only to ourselves, but the readers of the New York Times. I've made my opinion on this clear already. I'm taking a class right now with some wonderful people who are writing about 18th century literature. They are great intelligent people. However, you tell me, whose work is more relevant? Call me crazy, but if anyone has to justify their work, it ain't me. As a field, I think that the attempt to legitimize our field is totally a waste of time. People who get it, already get it. People who don't, never will. We don't need videogames to be art. I've already written about that in the past. Art is exclusionary and elitist. Why would we want people like that to like us? Why would we want to be those people? Now I enjoy art, but I do not put definitions on what art is, and find definitional argumetns tiresome. Finally, the article ends with, "But I don't want to draw the comparison between Arc the Lad and 'Ulysses,' " Dr. Palmer said, "because that would be very, very wrong." You know what else is wrong? Being an elitist bastard. It is wrong to compare a game and work of literature? Fuck that. Now, his comment is a bit ambiguous. Why is it wrong? I would like to think that it is wrong simply because they are very different. I've never played Arc the Lad and have never read Ulysses (I never got around to that one when I was getting my Bachelor's in English), so I don't know. However, the most obvious interpretation is that Arc is not in the same ballpark as Ulysses. The only thing I can say to that to think that a videogame is a worthy comparison to a book is sad. Videogame studies is a new field and if we have such an inferiority complex that we cannot make some bold assertions with confidence, then maybe there isn't any hope for us. I'm sure Dr. Palmer is a fine person, but that line needs some explanation. This article is nice in that it gets the general public aware, but it represents a lot of what I hate about academia and what I am actively trying to work against. If videogame studies is going to be about consciously replicating the biases and elitism of old disciplines, it will be at the cost of the work by people on the fringes who have made it possible to study videogames in the first place. We need to stop legitimizing our work and simply start doing our work. If we do that, then the quality of the work will legitimize itself without having to buy into the elitist establishments of the academy or newspapers.

Ranting regrets...

user — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 18:54:05 +0000

Of course the rant hasn't been up a day yet and I feel like I should clarify it. I like the work of all the bloggers mentioned. Even with the person who has the quote that I strongly disagree with is entitled to his opinion and I really don't mean anything personal by it. I read Mia Consalvo's blog that she noted that violence isn't mentioned at all, and I have to agree that this is a great step. However, I sitll think that the article is dangerous in that it presents a very elitist vision of what videogame studies could end up being. Elitism sucks. Beware of it! (and of course I am aware of my own biases of reverse-elitism, or automatically tending to privledge the popular) And of course there are typographical errors. I cannot spell. I may have a BA (or is it a BS? I really don't remember) in English, but that doesn't mean I can spell. I would go back and fix it, becasue it is embarasing, but I it is published and so be it.

Ranting Results???

user — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 17:45:27 +0000

Now, I do not seriously think that little old me had any influence on this at all, but in the comments below, Walter Kim (of Ludonauts.com) noticed that the article in question is no longer called "The Ivy-Covered Console" but is now called "Deconstructing the Videogame." I haven't had a chance to read the article again to see if anything else has changed, but it is interesting that at least a tiny little bit of the elitist connotations of the article have been removed.

Research

user — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 15:56:06 +0000

Anyone out there doing some research on videogame players as a sub-culture? Using a little Dick Hebdige or Sarah Thornton? I'm getting set to do some work on that and it would be nice to see what someone else has done on it.

Go with the flow

user — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 03:10:07 +0000

There is some discussion of work and how we need a way of talking about fun. In thinking of this I have long said that we need think of playing videogames as a performative act. We need to stop looking at the games and start looking at the players. (I've been saying that for almost 3 years now! That is a lifetime in videogame studies!) The fun is in the players, not the game. While his work has been criticized and it has ventured close to new age self help territory, I think that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on "flow" can be of help in focusing on what goes on with the gamers and what is fun and how to talk about pleasure. I really recommend taking a look at Beyond Boredom and Anxiety for a way of thinking about pleasure and what happens when we are in the zone and why work sometimes is pleasurable.

The rant that will not die!!!

user — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 17:30:26 +0000

My rant is continuing to generate discussion. In fact, the whole conference seems to be stirring up debate. Is gamesstudies headed for its first rift? I hope not. For my part, let me backpedal some more. I already posted about how I regret some of my language, but let me make clear, I implied that Dr. Palmer was an elitist bastard. A couple of people have questioned if I understand what was really intended to go on at that confernece. I fully feel that I do. I'm not sure that ranting was the best way of making people understand my problem with the article. I don't really have any problem with the conference. It is the way that it was presented in the article and some of the assumptions that still seem elitist and reproducing the bad of older disciplines that disturbs me. That being said, bring on the comments. It is only through engagement that we will be able to prevent gamestudies from factionalizing. So let's keep the talk coming. ...Even if you are all wrong! (that was a joke, seriously!)

A shocking, I say shocking, revelation

user — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 17:14:22 +0000

I was doing some reading this morning and found out something I didn't know. We remember about the guy who shot Reagan back in the day, right? He did it to impress Jodie Foster. This story is pretty commonly known. Any time when they do a biography of Reagan they say this. While I was alive at the time, I didn't remember WHY shooting Reagan was supposed to impress Foster. The reason was that he was imitating Taxi Driver. That little bit of info goes pretty unreported when we the assassination attempt is discussed, at least as far as I can tell. Certainly, I might just be out of the loop. Now if he had done it in imitation of a video game, you can gaurantee that bit of information would be mentioned every time. Look at Columbine. When it first happened, it was often said that there were three things that the kids were imitating. Now, chances are, if you ask the person on the street they will only say videogames. However, at the time there were also comments made against Marilyn Manson (I think though that it might have been shown that they didn't even really listen to him) and the film, The Basketball Diaries in which there is a short scene where the star shoots some people in a school while wearing a trenchcoat. It's funny how the film accusations have fallen to the side. Now, this may come as a shock, but I am beginning to suspect that the media might be just a little bit less fair and balanced than they would like us to think....

I can't escape it!!!

user — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 02:56:30 +0000

OK, this whole "I'm researching videogames" thing has started to get to me. I've been on spring break this week (whooo party! ...or not) and I have been visiting friends who don't own videogames (I know, I know, it is hard to believe that a) there are such people and b) that I, of all people, would be friends enough with them, but it is true). Now I"m home and trying to get caught up on school work. All day I've been looking at my lonely X-Box and thinking -- "Man, I really should play a little bit. It's been a week since I've played" but not out of some (at least overt) addiction, but out of obligation, like I am somehow obligated to play. I know I've talked about it before, but it is weird that a hobby has now become some sort of job. A great job, but it still feels weird. Anyone else feel that way?

Just a reminder...

user — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 19:57:16 +0000

I haven't seen this or anything, but as a reminder, GSN, the channel formerly known as the Game Show Network, is going to be showing a documentary Sunday night. It will probably be horrible and nothing that anyone didn't already know, but in my mind, even horrible things about videogames are interesting, simply because they are on the air and are being seen by lots of people who probably spend less time thinking about videogames than us academic folks and as such even horrible representations of videogames are for many the only representations that they may see. So be sure to tune in tomorrow night! Its got Tony Hawk! It must be kewl!

America's Army

user — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 02:33:27 +0000

If you are some sort of pack rat like me and have an unbearable compulsion to save anything videogame related, or if you are just interested in America's Army, then you might want to check out the pdf about it. I haven't read it yet, and honestly, I haven't spent as much time with America's Army as I should, but it looks interesting. And, again, I have a compulsion to download anything I see that might possibly potentially be useful in research at some undefined point at the future. Luckily, bits and bytes don't take up much space... I found it via a comment left over at Grand Text Auto.

EA University!

user — Sat, 27 Mar 2004 04:43:52 +0000

Something odd has happened here at Indiana University. IU has been taken over by EA Sports. Yesterday while going to the library, I ran across the following: Then later, while going to class I saw tons more stickers. So today, I brought my camera and in the four blocks between my office and the library I found: There were more stickers elsewhere on campus (including a staircase that had a sticker on nearly every step) which I had planned on photographing but it started to rain. Regardless, someone has been busy with their "viral marketing." After some research, I found a couple articles about EA's presence here on campus. It turns out that there is a student here on campus who is getting paid to put on the events that the fliers are advertizing. Of course in neither article is the fact that either directly or indirectly due to this guys efforts the campus is being covered with stickers. Sloppy journalism and environmental issues aside, it is is pretty interesting that EA sees college universities such a big market that they would have campus reps that were charged with organizing glorified product demos for them. It is important to note that not only is the campus covered with these stickers and fliers, but that these gaming events are taking place inside university buildings. I wonder if I wanted to have a Tupperware party in a dorm if I would be allowed. The way I see it, there are two possibilities, that the university knows that these EA sponsored events are occurring and don't care, in which case we have yet another case of advertising invading the university setting, or the university just doesn't know. I'm not sure which is worse. Of course, this isn't to imply that I want to shut the guy down. I find it incredibly facinating. I wish I could get paid to put on some LAN parties or something. This whole thing is just another sign of how big videogames really are. And more importantly, how big EA is. Is this kind of thing going on at other schools as blatantly as it is here?

It may not be the GDC, but...

user — Fri, 02 Apr 2004 23:22:55 +0000

I hop on a plane Tuesday to head down to San Antonio for the Popular Culture Association national conference. The PCA is not the most prestigious conference, but it is turning out to have quite a few videogame panels. When I went to the PCA two years ago in Toronto, I was on the only videogame panel, now there are five. So while none of the big names will be there (besides myself of course!) hopefully it will turn out to be a good time. So look forward to some pictures from the PCA!

PCA...

user — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 16:59:58 +0000

I'm sitting here in a Starbucks (gag!) in San Antonio. The videogame panels down here at the PCA have all been uniformly excellent. Each of them have also featured a great sharing of ideas and chatting afterwards. It is great to see so much energy and excitement in the field. Of course, the glamourous life of an academic requires that I stop reveling in the glory of my presentation and start grading my student's work....

Not sure if this counts as a game or not...

user — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 00:48:58 +0000

Recently, a friend directed me to subservientchicken.com. It is a guy in a chicken suit standing in front of a web cam. You type a command into a text box and the guy does what you type. Apparently, it is some sort of weird viral marketing for Burger King. It is pretty entertaining. It appears to be several pre-recorded segments, but it is interesting to see how many differnt clips they had to film. Mmmmm chickennnnnnn....

What I'm up to

user — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 03:11:36 +0000

The PCA was a good time. I felt that all the videogame panels were top notch. I suggest heading over to the PCA web site and doing ctrl+f search for game and see the titles of some of the papers that were presented. In my mind there is still a need for more videogame only conferences, but that is just me. Currently, I'm writing a paper about masculinity, whiteness, and nationhood in vidoegames. Of course with a topic like that, it is enormous. I am going to have to cut something out. There is still a big hole in videogame studies where race fits in, so I if anyone knows of anything dealing with the race of videogames and specifically videogame players, drop me a line in the comments.

EA Continues to sink its claws into university life...

user — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 04:23:39 +0000

So not only is EA paying some guy to cover the campus in stickers, but now they are coming here officially. Their "Games Live Tour" is coming to IU (pdf file). They will be here tomorrow. I plan on going. Hopefully, I will get to talk to one of the people running this show and get some info on just how much money is wrapped up in this. It amazes me the amount of money that EA seems to be wrapping up in just this campus. One would think that videogames had turned into a business if one didn't know better...

Curses!

user — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 19:06:26 +0000

Unfortunatly the EA game thing here on campus was mysteriously canceled. I am sure it was because they saw my blog and were afraid!

test

user — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 02:04:06 +0000

testing. something seems broke. besides my heart, of course... seriously though, there seemed to be something wrong with movable type, but it seemed to have cleared itself up now.

Is it just me?

user — Sun, 25 Apr 2004 05:22:49 +0000

I've started leaving G4TV on in the background while I study or grade. Is it just me, or is the way the show Filter is set up vaguely offensive or at the very least creepy? For those that don't know, the show is basically a Top Ten List show where they count down the Ten Best/Worst/Most games. Sometimes it will be the ten best fighting games, or the ten best boss battles, or whatever. Anyway, I recently noticed that every episode they have the host, Diane Mizota dressed up in a costume appropriate to the theme of the list. If you think of the implications of that, its kind of creepy. So here she is, a person with no identity except that which the game gives her. It seems so weird. She is this empty vessel, which the producers fill with whatever the theme of the day is. Now certainly, that isn't much different than ET on MTV or any of a million other shows, but do we really need to see a woman dressed up like Mario? As presented, she is little more than a doll that they play dress up with and young boys are supposed to drool at. She has no agency. No will of her own. To make matters worse, she is of Asian decent, so to the vast majority of viewers, she is probably already represents the Other. Let's not even get into the fetishization of Asian women that so many male gamers seem to exhibit. So to the demographic that G4 seems to be strongly targeting, teen age middle american boys, she is doubly othered, woman and Asian and then they proceed to make her play dress-up in these goofy outfits. Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid, it could be a lot worse. I mean I haven't seen them do a tribute to DOA Beach volleyball yet or anything, but I can't help but want to change the channel every time her show comes on because I can't bear to see what outfit she is in every episode.

Artisans and craftsmen (and craftswomen)

user — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:46:12 +0000

There's an article going around about on of the founders of Bungie starting his own studio. In the article (ok, its more of a press release, really) he says that he is going to outsourse a lot of the development. THe article ends with an interesting quote:

"It's kind of broken," Seropian told Reuters, speaking about the current model of development used by the bulk of publishers. "It's kind of antiquated - it's how they were making films in the '30s."

Well, I don't think that is really the "problem" (if there is one). The difficulty isn't that videogames are made like 1930's films. It is like they are made like 1730's items -- that is, by hand and not mechanical reproduction. I left this message about it over on Slashdot:

I don't think this will be as cost effective as one might think. Basically the videogame industry is still in the pre-industrial artisanal (sp?) era. Everything is still made by hand. If you want to make a chair, you still need to build the chair piece by piece. There is no equivalent to a factory-made chair. So rather than the unskilled labor we now have in most factories, we have skilled craftsmen and artists. Until technology exists for the equivalent of unskilled labor to design the chairs, wheels, and furniture of a gaming world, the costs of developing games will still be high. I forsee a day soon when a start up will open that specializes in creating the props of vidoegame worlds so that game designers will have a situation similar to that of the players of the Sims where they have a wide variety of chairs (or whatever) to pick from and they just plop it into the game pre-fab without having to employ someone to exclusively make such props. Now certainly there is something to say for props that are build explicitly for the game. They provide a sense of stylistic unity. But I really do see a day when pre-fab props will come to be used.

They know I know!

user — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:46:55 +0000

I was just looking at my web site visitor log and look who's been visiting: Referrer URLs www.worldwide.ea.com/industry/view.aspx www.eac.ea.com/QA/news.asp knowledge.ea.com/industry/view.aspx passport.worldwide.ea.com/ www.worldwide.ea.com/ www.worldwide.ea.com/industry/ Hmmmm... It looks like someone at EA has found my blog. I tried some of the links, but I couldn't get any of them to work. I'm assuming that perhaps they are some sort of internal company links or something. I wonder in what context my site is being linked to. It seems that nothing escapes their attention for long. I, for one, welcome our new EA overlords... Seriously, I have nothing against EA, I'm just interested in what is going on here. So, hello EA! Leave a comment or two!

narratology vs. ludology

user — Wed, 05 May 2004 15:21:06 +0000

Once again the narratology has returned. Both those links have some interesting points. However, this whole debate, imho, like the violence debate, is misguided. Why does it matter if videogames have narrative or not? What is the end goal of that? It seems to me that the end goal is to study the relationship between the player and the game and how that relationship comes about. If that is the end goal, then why does it matter if it is narrative or not? If taken in the larger context of ultimately finding out how we interact with these games, then it doesn't really matter all that much what theories we use to get there, does it? As long as we get there, the road doesn't matter all that much -- within reason of course. I'm not saying the ends justify the means here, just that in academia we sometimes get so worked up about who people put on their works cited list that we froget to actually read the paper, so to speak. I always say that I don't study videogames, I study the players and their relationship to the games. I suppose there are those that do study just the game, but even then, we do all this bluster about "interactive" and "ergodic" and whatnot, so is it even possible to theorize about videogames without talking about the role of the player at all?? I am probably a ludologist but, in the end, it doesn't really matter. What I'm calling for is a refocusing on what we are really studying. If we study videogames, we have to study the people playing them, don't we? So then, if I think, Narratology is for losers (that is an April Fool's joke in case you haven't seen it), and you don't, it doesn't really matter because my opinion doesn't stop you from doing your work. I'm studying people. How about you?

lazy summer days...

user — Thu, 13 May 2004 01:15:55 +0000

I made it through my first year of my phd. I've got an incomplete, but I'm working on it, i swear! So E3 has started. Amazingly, I am soooooooooo unimpressed by what I've seen today. It seems like there is a huge concentration on graphics and physics. Not a whole lot of talk about gameplay going on... Oh well, no exciting new games just means more time to catch up on my work.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

user — Sat, 15 May 2004 20:18:07 +0000

The ESA has released their annual "Essential Facts" brochure (PDF file) with their statistics about who is doing what in regards to videogames. Yet again this year there is not one word of race. It would be nice if someone somewhere with the resources would do a study to see what the racial breakdown of videogame players is. It would also be nice if the ESA would release their raw data. I can understand why they don't because this is designed for the general public, but it would certainly be nice to have more specifics on the data. I mean these numbers are already suspect in my mind because they come from the industry and so are spun in the best possible way. However, without even knowing how the data was gathered, what questions were asked, or how the questions were phrased, the data is next to worthless for anything by a soundbite -- which again, is what it is designed for. It is just kind of sad that the most complete statistical data on the gaming industry is unacessable to the people who are really the most interested in it.

links...

user — Sun, 16 May 2004 00:39:35 +0000

So I finally got around to adding some links to other game blogs. If there are any that I missed, leave a comment.

addiction

user — Fri, 21 May 2004 18:35:31 +0000

Over at games.slashdot.org there is a story entitled, "Drug Addiction Integrated Into Achaea MUD" that while doesn't have many details, talks about an interesting gameplay element that the MUD has recently added. While not the first online game to add adiction (according to a couple posters over at slashdot A Tale in the Desert also has addictive drugs. The addition of addictive drugs which have negative consequences is an interesting subject. What is the purpose of having such a thing in a game? Is it to lend it a feeling of reality, to make the gameplay experience more realistic? Is it moralistic and attempting to teach us the drugs are bad? Does it turn addiction into entertainment? I've not played either game, so I don't know how the drug addiction is implimented except from what is written over at slashdot, and I can't offer any great insite. However it is certainly worth pondering what this does to the gameplay experience, especially in a world where we are told that some drugs are bad and yet every other commercial is for a drug that we are supposed to ask our doctor about. Are there good drugs in these worlds? Are there fairly harmless stimulants? As the games we play become more complex, there are more complex question that need to be asked.

addicted to following the news on addiction...

user — Tue, 25 May 2004 22:12:15 +0000

There are a couple more stories on the addiction within the game Achaea. Terra Nova points to an article on Wired called Virtual Dopers Crave High Scores that has a couple quotes from the developers. It is an interesting read.

Of possible interest

user — Thu, 27 May 2004 19:31:07 +0000

I ran across a paper that might be of interest to anyone out there talking about gamers and the kind of gamers taht attend LAN parties. Jeroen Jansz and Lonneke Martens have written a paper called Gaming at a LAN event: the social context of playing digital interactive games" (pdf file, google also has a cache of an html version) It is a pretty basic paper where they gave a survey to some gamers, but it might come in handy some day, so I thought I would post an entry about it.

A little something I rescued from the recycle bin...

user — Sat, 29 May 2004 18:22:06 +0000

I"m editing an article for publication and as always happens in situations like that there are always little bits that have to be cut out. Cutting the out is always painfull and so rather than just deleting the paragraph I thought I would post it here. So here is something for people to mull over:

In the often cited "Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema," Laura Mulvey writes that one of the pleasures of film is scopophilic, or based on looking (324). "[The] brilliance of the shifting patterns of light and shade on the screen helps to promote the illusion of voyeuristic separation" (Mulvey 324). However, in a FPS, the player is voyeristically looking at the main character because the player is the main character which means there can be no voyeuristic pleasure in playing a FPS because there is no one to watch. Indeed, even if one were to attempt to stop playing the game in order to look at one of the other characters and subject the character to a objectifying male gaze, the character would in all likelyhood shoot the player in a direct rejection of the voyeristic gaze. Additionally, what occurs while playing a Shooter is not a separation, but an immersion in that by using the first-person perspective, the player is encouraged to forget that they are playing a character and to feel as if they themselves are in the game. The pleasure in playing a First-Person Shooter is not in looking but in doing.

you say liminal, i say liminoid

user — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 04:31:34 +0000

So this is a post that I'm imagining only the smallest portion of the smallest portion will know what I'm talking about but here goes. So I'm thinking about liminality and liminal vs. liminoid in videogames, specifically in Counter-Strike. So Turner would certainly say that playing videogames at a lan party was a liminoid phenomenon. However, what about the world of the game itself? Again, specifically in Counter-Strike, which is basically war, would that be a liminal space or a liminoid space? I am thinking that the world of the game is liminal, especially if we look at it from the perspective of the characters. If so, then playing Counter-Strike is a liminoid enactment of a liminal performance. Of course there is all that Turner's social drama stuff as well. I wonder how that fits in?

Same old story, same old song and dance

user — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 20:33:51 +0000

From time to time there are always those who like to pull out that good old, "How can you theorize games if you don't know how to program them?" and argue that videogame scholars need to know programming in order to really understand what is going on in a videogame. While I don't deny that there is some validity to that and I, myself, have a tiny little bit of programing experience (Logo, baby! I made a shooting game and everything!). However, there is another part of the story. I'm going to go out on a limb and argue that all the programming in the world isn't going to help you really understand videogames because there is more to games than the software and hardware. There is the wetware, to go all cyberpunk. Yes, I'm talking about, once again, the people who play the games. Therefore, I'm going to turn the question around, "How can you theorize games if you don't know anything about ethnographic methods?" and I argue that videogame scholars need to know some anthropology, folklore or performance studies to really be able to articulate what is going on when we play games. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't study videogames, I study the people who play them. Anthropologists and Folklorists have been studying people for a long time now. They have written a whole lot about what people do in social situations. We should probably spend some time thinking about that. The more I think about videogames, the more I realize that the scholarly study of them really does require a unique background of information. There is the new media stuff, certainly, and there is the human computer interaction stuff, but there is also the good old fashioned human to human interaction too. We are people and we are doing things. What we are doing is just as important was what we are doing them with. So game scholars, take that intro to programming course, but make sure you also that that intro to ethnography, anthropology, performance, or folklore class, too.

Learning new ways to play vs. being taught a new way

user — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 04:09:31 +0000

Over at the IGDA web site, Matthew Sakey has written an interesting column, Reality Panic. In it he discusses the fact that when people were play testing Deus Ex: Invisible War,

At one point, testers approached a T intersection: to the right were laser tripwires and gun turrets; to the left was a locked door; and directly in front was a (usable) window. He said every single one of them, without fail, went to the right. One can imagine how frustrated developers must occasionally get when they watch gamers consistently employ Neolithic problem solving tactics when modern development tools make much more advanced techniques available.

The column makes a strong argument that the dominant paradigm of gameplay is changing. More and more things are possible, but we have been trained to think in narrow ways when playing games. We have been taught in a million little ways that the door can't be opened and the window is a dead end. But that is no longer the case. Technology has progressed and allowed for more possibilities. The problem is, no one told us that. As Sakey correctly points out, game designers need to reteach us. We can learn that the rules have changed on our own, but it will be much more effective, and much more satisfying if the game teaches us that the there are new possibilities open to us. To take this farther though, I wonder if it might be possible that ten years from now, when we look back at the games where there were fewer possibilities and reminisce about how great they were just like we now reminisce about the simplicity of games like Pac-Man. Will we look at Quake and say that it was more fun, a better game because we didn't have to worry about ragdoll physics and being able to find our own path? I'm sure we will. I can't wait until we get the "id classics tv games" that we hook up to our HDTV's.

E3 still offers intersting observations...

user — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 19:20:37 +0000

Robin Hunicke has some really great commentary on E3 over at her blog. Even though I've never been to E3, her thoughts pretty well match my own observations of it, especially in light of Tore Vesterby's blog post that mentions that :

Gamespy is offering an official DVD of E³ coverage. I guess the booth babes are as important - if not more important - than the games when looking at their pre-order site and their promo text:

You'll get 4 DVDs packed with over 200 game previews, press conference coverage, looks behind-the-scenes, editor cameos, even a booth babe featurette -- over 11 hours of video, total!

Here's my note to the industry: Yes, heterosexual men find women attractive. However, there are lots of other people in the world besides heterosexual men. Sure sex sells, but I tell you what, even I, as one of those who is in the target demographic, am getting tired of T&A. If we want T&A there are other places to get that. I get a dozen emails a day telling me where I can get that in fact. Everything has its place, and there is room for a lot more variety than the industry is giving us.

I like to shoot people!

user — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 05:04:10 +0000

I was out playing Counter-Strike with some guys in the computer lab earlier, and while I know I am certainly not the first to say so, videogame scholars really need to read Clifford Geertz's Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. (Note that this is an condensed version. Go find The Interpretation of Cultures or another book it appears in for the full version). Not only is Geertz an entertaining writer (something that is all too often lacking in academia, but he makes some interesting observations on what makes play and games exciting and involving.

Accuracy in reporting???

user — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 04:59:37 +0000

As most readers know they caught the people who stole the Half-Life 2 source code. However, in doing my usual Google news search for videogame, I ran across an interesting article about the source code theft. According to the Modesto Bee, " Arrests were made in the theft of video game blueprints. From the article:

SEATTLE (AP) - Authorities have arrested suspects in a case involving the theft of software blueprints for the hotly awaited action computer game "Half-Life 2," the FBI said Friday.

Who knew that software had blueprints? At least that explains why Half-Life 2 has been delayed for going on a year now. I'm no game designer, but I think you actually have to type all the code into the computer rather than write on that blue paper with white pencils.

See, I'm not the only one that thinks Geertz rocks!

user — Sun, 13 Jun 2004 04:32:27 +0000

I was doing a search for a Goffman reference that Geertz uses in Deep Play and I found a pretty cool posting called "Closely Reading DAoC" that makes some interesting insights into how Geertz is applicable to MMORPG's. Go check it out.

Lesen Sie Deutschen?

user — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 23:21:25 +0000

In order to get my language requirement out of the way for my phd I'm taking German this summer. The second summer session just started Friday (the day after the first session ended!) and we have to write a paper (in English!) using sources written in German. So what are some good internet available videogame essays written in German? I've run across a couple, but can always use some more.

I hear they like it when you call 'em chicks...

user — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 23:57:23 +0000

A few days ago, Slashdot had a discussion titled, "Recruit More Women Developers, Attract Women Gamers?" which was mentioning the MSNBC article, "Gaming tries to shed boys' club image" which discusses the attempt to get more women developing games so that more women will buy them. Of course a lot of the comments on Slashdot amounted to "make games that are fun, everyone likes fun" which totally misses the point that what is fun for one person isn't fun for everyone. One of the posters brought up the Pew Internet study on college gamers (pdf file) but that study might be a bit misleading. I responded:

Actually I was at a conference back in April and one of the presentations discussed studies of the gender of gamers, and I think they referred to that Pew study specifically but I may be misremembering. Anyway they said that those studies tend to be a bit misleading because in general men and women tend to play different kinds of games, for different reasons and for different lengths of time. They said that women tend to play more card games and things like bejeweled online while men tend to play more of the retail buy in a box at the store and install games. Also they said that men tend to play for fun while women tend to play more out of boredom. Finally they said that men tend to play online for longer periods of time than women. Now of course these are all generalizations and there are certainly exceptions, but I buy what they were saying and so we need to take studies about gender in gaming with a grain of salt to make sure that they aren't whitewashing over some real differences.

Now the reason why I'm posting this isn't because what I said was really insightful or anything, but because of the response I got. A woman gamer wrote a really great response to my post in which she discusses her thoughts on women and gaming. Go read it. It's really interesting. FInally before I go, go look at that MSNBC article again. Notice that first picture? While the gaming industry may be trying to attract more women, at least the people who picked the pictures for this article are still thinking in very traditional ways. "Let's put up a picture of a game that women would be interested in!" "Oh, I know! They like the Sims! Let's put up a picture talking about kissing and boys and all the yucky icky stuff girls like. Eeeww I hope I don't get cooties from posting this!"

Cheap Bastard

user — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 05:01:12 +0000

I'm a cheap bastard. I hardly ever buy games full price. Well, I went to the evil that is Wal-Mart today and wow, they have lots of good games for $9.98! I finally picked up Max Payne (as well as Red Faction 2). Which points out the fact that, you know, I bought Red Faction 2, which is something I probably wouldn't have done if they were full price. So of course, I just can't wait untill ESPN NFL 2K5 comes out! But anyway, to give you folks a heads up, there are some good deals lurking at you local Wal-Mart if you go past the boxes and look at the games in jewel cases. EDIT: I'm refering to PC games. I don't see consol games drop much below 19.95.

Use a cheat, go to jail

user — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 20:01:49 +0000

It has been widely reported that Gabe Newell has posted to the Half-Life 2 Fallout forums:

We've started taking legal action against cheating (cheat-sites, cheat creators,...) both in the US and abroad. This is in addition to the on-going investments in anti-cheating technology. You'll see reports of this percolating up as various actions happens.

The reaction to this announcement at places like this games.slashdot thread have been mostly supportive of such announcements. However, you can't have it both ways people. Everyone complains and complains about how evil the RIAA is for using people who download music. Why are we happy when Valve threatens legal action against people who have paid for the product? I'm curious as to what grounds they are intending to pursue legal action. The DMCA? Copyrights? EULA's? I thought we hated all those things too? When I heard that Valve was going to pursue legal action (and it isn't entirely clear what that means, suing them for damages or attempting to prosecutes them for breaking a law), I was disturbed. I know cheating sucks, but legal action isn't going to prevent cheating any more than suing people who download music without paying for it. Valve already pissed off enough people complaining about Steam (which I've never had a problem with) and with having Steam download Counter-Strike: Condition Zero in the background (even though the first time you started Steam after they added Condition Zero it DID tell you in the fine print that it was doing that) and I thought that more would be pissed off about litigation to solve their problems. Admittedly, some were, but the majority of comments seemed to be positive. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean people always want things that are good for them and don't want things that are bad for them. However, from an ethnographic point of view, it is good to remind ourselves that as humans, our ways aren't always consistent. I know I'm not and I guess I shouldn't expect anyone else to be either.

Has it been six months already?

user — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 03:19:17 +0000

It has been said that every six months the moral panic over videogame violence tries to rear its ugly head, and sure enough, nearly six months ago to the day I wrote a post about the public's perceptions about violence and referenced a widely discussed New York Post column. Well, now Nick Wadhams of the Associated Press has written a pretty wildly picked up article that once again Lawmakers are attacking Violent Video Games. Wadhams has written a fair number of articles on videogames before, so it is sad to see this new article to folow the stereotype so well. Matteo Bittanti has written a great article about the formula for the moral panic and created, "The "Crusade against videogame violence story" CONSTRUCTION KIT?. The most disappointing thing about the article for me is that it appeals to the same old sources: Iowa State University's Craig Anderson, Mary Lou Dickerson, Leland Yee, Joe Baca, the National Insittute for Media and the Family and what report on videogame violence would be complete without a quote from my FAVORITE lawyer Jack Thompson? Can we please get some new sources? At least Wadhams didn't call up Dave Grossman but the new kid on the block, Evan Wright author of Generation Kill. However, I must say that the reason why the use of sources is so disappointing is that not only are these people the exact same people who pop up every six months saying exactly the same things and for exactly the same reason, but in addition these are people with an agenda whose opinions are presented as if they had credibility. I'm sorry, but in my opinion none of these people have any credibility whatsoever. Of course if you are reading this then you probably know that. However, I don't think it can be said enough. These are people with an agenda. I am not interested in the violence issue, but if we want to be able to talk about anything else the agenda that people have against videogames needs to be made clear and obvious so that we as academics can get on with more interesting subjects. Untill that time comes, how about we all meet back here six months from now?

Lazy days of summer...

user — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 15:49:57 +0000

It is indeed the lazy days of summer. I just want to lay in bed all day. But my adoring crowd of fives of fives of dedicated readers insist that I update my blog. Oh the responsibility of blogging! Random game related things: I'm playing through Half-Life again. I know that it has been talked about to death by many people, including myself, but it still has something going for it. Lots of people mention the great story, but even having played through the game more than once, I really don't see where this plot is. Sure, there is a storyline, but I don't really care about it at all. What makes it so interesting for me is just that it is put together oh well. Never are there places where you have to really guess what you are supposed to do which makes playing it such an intuitive experiences. However, it is not all wine and roses. For a games that is this old, and is still being patched from time to time, I'm surprised that it has as many bugs as it does. Every time I ride an elevator, I have to jump at the end of the ride or else I get stuck and can't move. It is incredibly irritating and serves to remind me of how fragile the reality of a game is. On another topic, I don't think I ever mentioned it but Dungeons and Dreamers is a facinating read. It is strongest when it concentrates on Richard Garriot of Ultima fame and somewhat weaker when it strays to other subjects such as the id people (which is probably weakened all the more by coming out after Masters of Doom). *Irony Alert* I think that by focusing so much on people, however, the book actually missed out on addressing a much more interesting phenomenon. I know, I know, I'm the guy who is always saying, "Videogames are about people!" and"Ethnography is da bomb!" but while the story of how Richard Garriot amassed a fortune, and helped to create an industry and then got forced out from the company he founded in his parent's house is facinating, I think that it really serves as an illustration of a larger phenomenon of the corporatization of the gaming industry. Garriot's story nicely illustrates how the computer software industry moved from something that people literally did in their garages, bedrooms and attics by themselves and hiring friends and family and marketing games themselves to a multibillion dollar industry which is driven by profit rather than artistic vision and now takes years and large groups of people to complete. It also signals the death of the autuer, which is in and of itself an interesting phenomenon in that to the vast majority of people who buy games they are an authorless medium. Had Dungeons and Dreams explored this aspect with a little more detail, it would have made for an incredibly facinating analysis. Oh well, I guess that's my job!

change is in the air..

user — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 17:55:41 +0000

Four short posts about change: So, not to like get anyone's hopes up, but I think I'm just about done messing about with the css for the new layout. Look for a new improved design early next week! On game related news, it seems that Doom 3 is going to come out fairly soon. I guess that is even more motivation to buy a new computer. However, I have to say that if it is like the preview that they showed at E3 a couple years ago that had the constant mini-cutscenes, I will be very dissapointed. All I ask is no cutscenes! Don't show me doing something, let me do it! Speaking of E3, from the debut of the PSP and the Nintendo DS at the last E3, it looks like the landscape of gaming could be changing with the good old gameboy having some serious competition. I've never been much of a mobile gamer, I've never owned a gameboy -- although I did have a handheld Space Invaders game back in the day. I turned over the score counter on it. See mom and dad, I wasn't wasting my time, I was doing research for my future career! You got to have that cultural capital man! But nexy year's E3 seems to be the one where everyone will be showing off their new consoles. I don't know. I feel like it is time to replace the PS2. Some may disagree, but I think it's limitations are holding back some cross platform games. But I don't really feel like my x-box has reached the end of its life yet. I think it has a couple more years left in it. And of course with Microsoft radically changing the architecture of the NeXtbox (whatever it ends up being called) there won't be any backwards compatability. However, I think the idea of modding one of the current boxes and archiving a bunch of games on it does look compelling. Well, wasn't that just disjointed and rambling?

No Doom For Me!

user — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 17:38:28 +0000

Due to some disturbing information I have recently learned about, I will not be purchasing Doom 3. Won't someone think ot the children?!?!

Am I supposed to call it 3.0?

user — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 00:49:22 +0000

Here it is! I hope everyone likes it. Below is lots of non-game related web design lamenting, so if you aren't into that, the game content will return in the next post (unless I've broken things so much I have to apologize!) Well, after a month or so trying to figure out CSS, I think I got enough of it under control so that I have something I am happy with. I hope everyone enjoys the new site. For those LONG time readers, you may remember that when I first started a blog, it was a 3 column layout, and now it is again. The more things change the more they stay the same. The layout started out as a template I got from Firdamatic but it was fixed width and I wanted a liquid layout. That broken layout can be seen here. I eventually found A List Apart which had a great article about "Creating Liquid Layouts with Negative Margins." Now I have to admit, I still don't entirely understand why the margin has to be negative, but it works. Of course it didn't work right away, because these things never does. I had to just basically cut and paste the article's CSS the results of which can be seen here. I discovered an invaluable took for people messing around with web design, editcss, an extension for Firefox which places an item in the right click context menu that pops up the css of any site and allows you to edit it on the fly. With the help of that I was able to get things looking the way I wanted them. But of course, that was only when I was looking at it in Firefox and Mozilla. The calendar was all screwed up in IE and Opera. Now not being a web design wizard, I did what anyone would do, I turned to Google. Eventually I found someone that had encountered the same problem and was able to fix it. So with the help of editcss, I was able to figure out what Palestars did to fix it. Finally came the little fiddling with the borders and the colors. The banner picture is a picture I took here on IU's campus. I originally was going to have more pictures of places in town where I have seen videogame related things in public, but decided it would be too busy. I made the title with the font silkscreen which I first ran into on the web comic Diesel Sweeties and I tried to keep the actual title fairly small so that it shows up in a wide variety of screen resolutions. So that is it. I haven't changed the archive templates (and I should mention that I figured out how to display category archives from Learning Movable Type) and I'm not sure if I will. I've tried out the site on Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, IE6 on Windows and Safari, Mozilla, and IE on the mac (it looks a little odd on IE for the mac, but I have no idea how to fix it and according to the server logs it doesn't look like very many people are using it) but if someone finds something looking weird, let me know. I probably won't know how to fix it, but I've gotten really good at cut and paste!

Long time no see

user — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 23:05:03 +0000

It has been a bit longer between updates than typical, but I've been busy. TV won't watch itself! And there is some interesting stuff on TV occasionally. On the otherwise dreadful G4TechTV one generally great and always interesting show is Icons, which features short half hour documentaries about videogame related topics. Friday they had a pretty good show on about DooM. Like all things on cable it will be on again soon. Bluesnews posted links to various videos of the episode. One thing that I gathered from the episode was that Steven Kent, author of The Ultimate History of Video Games, among other things, is writing The Making of Doom III, which should be an interesting companion to David Kushner's Masters of Doom. OK, time to watch some more TV. I think this might be the one where Gilligan messes up their chance to get off the island!

Followup on German sources

user — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 16:52:53 +0000

A little while back I asked for some German-language references for a paper I have to write for my German class. Thanks to some helpfull posters as well as the kind people on the DIGRA mainling list, combined with my own research skills, I was able to find some articles that seem fairly interesting. I thought I would share them if any readers of German are curious: Bruns, Karin. ?Game Over? Narration und Spannung im Computerspiel.? Kulturrevolution. 45-46 (2003): 85-89. Fritz, Juergen. ?Action, Lebenswelten und Transfer.? medien+erziehung (merz), 47:1 (2003): 7-21. Fritz, J?rgen and Wolfgang Fehr. ?Identit?t durch Spiel: Computerspiele als Lernanreize f?r die Pers?nlichkeitsentwicklung.? Medien Praktisch. 4 (1999):30-32. Gunzenh?user, Randi. ?Darf ich mitspielen? Literaturwissenschaften und Computerspiele.? September 22, 2003. July 20, 2004 . -- ?Raum, Zeit und K?rper in Actionspielen Max Payne.? dichtung-digital. March 31, 2002. July 20, 2004 . Mathez, Judith. ?Von Mensch zu Mensch. Ein Essay ?ber virtuelle K?rper realer Personen im Netz.? dichtung-digital. November 7, 2002. July 20 2004 < http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2002/11/10-Mathez/index.htm>. M?ller, J?rg. ?Virtuelle K?rper. Aspekte sozialer K?rperlichkeit im Cyberspace.? 1996. July 20, 2004 . Schindler, Friedemann. ?Von Super Mario und Super Marion.? January 29, 1999. July 20, 2004 . Suter, Beat. ?Computerspiel und Narration.? netzliteratur.net. April, 10 2003. July 20, 2004 . Wenz, Karin. ?Computerspiele: Hybride Formen zwischen Spiel und Erz?hlung.? netzliteratur.net. March 5, 2003. July 20, 2004 < www.netzliteratur.net/wenz/wenz_computerspiele.htm>. -- ?Computerspiele und Kulturwissenschaften.? netzliteratur.net. April 3, 2003. July 20, 2004 < http://www.netzliteratur.net/wenz/comp_kult.htm>. I guess this means I have to work on translating them now...!

Young Lust

user — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:16:00 +0000

With the imminent release of DooM 3, I, like a lot of people, am thinking of upgrading my computer. I've currently got an Athlon 1900+ based home-built system. I am totally lusting after these newer systems. I always had overheating issues with this computer, so I do not think I will be building my own this time and so those small form-factor LAN party cases are SO tempting! However, I am going to try to wait a month or so. In investigating from whom I am going to buy from, I am amazed at all the fancy cases and lighted cases and other flashy stuff that is on the market today. There are some obvious crossovers between the case-mod community and the muscle car guys (even down to using many of the same concepts and techniques). However, there is also a lot of model building involved with people making cases out of ammo boxes, and putting coffeemakers into cases. The common thread in these similarities is that gaming, cars, and model building are all hobbies dominated by men. It is interesting to see how videogame players keep finding ways to perform their masculinity despite the stereotype of gamers as nerdy and rather unmasculine. So even we dorks can find activities that women are traditionally not active in! So this performing of masculinity is somewhat doubly bound, although case modding mimics car customizing, I don't really think that having a tricked out computer has the same cultural capital in the larger non-gaming society as having a tricked out car. I guess I'm a bit more old school though. I don't want my case to have a window or to glow. I want my computer to look bland an unimportant but have a kickin' motor under the hood.

German Doonsbury and Jack Thompson

user — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 17:18:39 +0000

Been terribly busy with the German class. I'm in the middle of doing hurried translations of some German-language videogame articles so I can write up an annotated bibliography and then go back to being a monolingual American! This morning I saw that the comic strip Doonsbury had recently ran a week long series of strips about videogames. I hadn't seen anyone mention it, so it is worth a read through if you haven't seen it already. Of course one of the stories that is getting the most buzz is the murder in the UK that is supposesd to involve the game Manhunt. Of course you know our good friend Jack Thompson had to get his nose involved. Some sources are even alledging the family of the murdered boy have hired him to sue Sony. Who knew that Jack was able to practice law outside of America? Of course now that the police have said that they don't see any connection to the game, but that doesn't seem to have caused Jack to say that he might have been wrong.

Crystal Waters can relate

user — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 15:14:43 +0000

No posting latly since my lease on my old apartment ran out last Friday and my new apartment isn't available untill noon this Friday. So I'm homeless, I'm homeless. However, just a quick tip. I don't know if I'm just dence, or what, but I've been going to Shacknews pretty frequently for a while now. However, it is only recently that I've started taking notice of their "Latest Interesting Comments" feature at teh top of the main page. It turns out that is where the REAL late breaking news often occurs. People will find out about it, post a message and often it will be news that won't show up untill the next day, or it will be a link to some interesting pic or freeware. While not entirely game related, it is a good way to keep track of the pulse of the gaming world. Also a study of it would be facinating in that it would show the spread of news and information that the internet allows.

Is it art or is it commerce?

user — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 02:32:13 +0000

I'm in the midst of unpacking, so this might not make much sense. Be warned! I've been thinking about the state of videogame theory. I was over at the fairly newly launched GameBlogs.org and realized that it seems that all those who study games really aren't studying the same thing. It seems there is a large amount of crossover between people who make games and academics. There are a lot of game makers who theorize and a lot of theorists who make games. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. In one sense, the interaction between the two is a good thing. It lets each side see things from the other side. I'm all for tearing down boundaries, and mixing things up. However, on the other side, I would like to see a bit more separation between the two camps. I'm not sure I really all that interested in how to sell games or making better games or even using games for purposes other than to entertain. I don't see that those have all that much to do with what I am interested in. On some level, it is more of a personal problem. I don't don't want there to be a solid division between any approaches or goals to gaming. I'm just not sure that I want to read about some of those things. If I step back though, I think that the growing number of gaming blogs that have popped up in the two plus years since I started this site is a sign of the growth of the field. The fact that there are lots of sites that I don't necessarily feel like they apply to me, and that I don't feel the need to read regularly is a good thing, I guess.

Something I saw somewhere else...

user — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 04:47:08 +0000

Well, I'm trying to ease off of the instant buyer's remorse of buying a new computer. I just put my orders in for the parts and although my current desktop is old (Athlon 1900+) the thought of spending the money shocks me. Oh well, I ordered some l33t components. Athlon 3500+ (with the fancy new socket) Radeon x800, gig of ram. Watch out all you lamers, i'm coming after you! But I was surfing around over at water cooler games and saw the link to the interesting Gamespot article, Redefining Games: How Academia is Reshaping Games of the Future, which is the longest article I can remember ever seeing on Gamespot. Despite not having a printer friendly link that I can see, author Lauren Gonzalez does a good job of covering the bases. It links to several game blogs, but of course not mine! (But then again there are tons of gaming blogs that don't link to me even though they link to any other fly by night blogs... but I'm not bitter or anything...;-) The article ends on the interesting note of asking people what person unrelated to the field of games--famous or not, dead or alive--they would chose to be a game developer. The answers are pretty interesting and revealing of a persons theoretical standing. Of course, that begs the question of who I would choose. Honestly, I don't have a solid answer to such a question because I spend so little time theorizing games (and most of my time theorizing players and the appeals of playing, which is of course related, but as my high school principal once said, "It's the same, but different."). Musically, I think I might pick Led Zeppelin from the height of their careers, or the Flaming Lips. I think it might be interesting to have the guy who makes up the New York Times Crossword puzzle make a game. If I were cruel, I would suggest that it would be great if the makers of Final Fantasy made a game, but I'm not cruel enough to say that... ;) From art, I would second Salvador Dali or Escher. But it would also be a very tranquil experience to have Bob Ross rise from the grave and design a game. From the realm of literature? I seem to be drawing a blank on that one... Man, I am just grumpy today. On that note, I will wrap this up. In the past couple days I've ran into a couple of people that say they read my blog. I just want to give a shout out to my peeps. Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday to ME!

user — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 23:06:21 +0000

It is my birthday! I'm 31. Weeeeeeeeee!!! Haven't been playing many games lately. Been busy with the school starting again. Watched Video Game Revolution on PBS last night. Nothing that other documentaries haven't gone over a million times before, but entertaining at least. Of course, we saw all the usual suspects interviewed: Steven Kent, Nolan Bushnell, Henry Jenkins and the like. So I guess since this is at least the 3rd Videogame history that has appeared in the past 5 years, we can see the canonization of videogame history being built. Atari, but they stole it from Baer, then they sold it to Warner brothers, then Nintendo came along, then there was Doom and some kids killed people and Grand Theft Auto is a great game but morally questionable (note: that is the ideology of these programs, not me. I have a hard time taking seriously claims from people who haven't played the game, because every time i try to go on a killing spree in GTA3 the cops are on me in a heartbeat). While they did talk about violence a bit, at least our good friends Dave Grossman and Jack Thompson weren't mentioned (and thankfully, neither was Robert Thompson) nor was there any talk of rape in Grand Theft Auto. However, there was a lot of minor errors, or deceits. Showing Vice City while talking about GTA3 and showing Super Nintendo games while still talking about the NES. The most interesting thing about these docs though, is that they make it seem like the US is the main contributor to gaming. Even when they mention Japan, they don't really mention the impact of Japanease games. And Europe and other parts of the world? Unless you are talking about Tetris, forget about it. I'm interested in getting some more of an international perspective. Besides the interesting Game Over is there anything about the history of videogames that isn't explicitly about America?

test post

user — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 17:58:48 +0000

testing this from my new l33t boxen

I am l33t!!!!

user — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 22:22:25 +0000

I'm posting this on my l33t new system amd 64 3500+, ATI radion x800 pro. I've only got 512 ram currently since the other stick of 512 i have prevents teh machine from booting. So I need to order some of that "mached pair" stuff. But my system is l33t enough to play Doom3! So yes, contrary to a prior post, I bought Doom 3 (unfortunatly, the Ban Doom site doesn't seem to be up any longer). The first thing I noticed about Doom 3 was how little I noticed the graphics. They because instantly naturalized for me. Of course I had seen lots of screenshots before playing it, but I was surprized that I wasn't really wowed by the graphics. They are, of course, awesome, but the game comes on and that's what it looks like, and I just sort of acccept that. It is only when I consciously compare it to other games, that I notice the graphics. The second thing I noticed was the damn cut scenes! AARRGGGHHH!!!! Why? Why? Why? That was the first thing I was afraid of those years ago when we first saw some E3 footage. As of yet, aside from teh introductory cut scene, I really haven't seen any reason why they have to go to these stupid cut scenes to either advance the plot or show the monster crawling out of the wall. If I care about teh plot, I will look at the people talking. There are planty of monsters jumping out that scare me. Perhpas the monster slowly coming out at me is supposed to be some sort of slow reveal/paralyzed by fear type of thing. Unfortunatly, the only thing it does for me is piss me off when I can see the damn (see, damn, demons. It isn't cussing if they really are damned!) monster coming at me and I can't shoot at it or back away from it and I have to act the isntant they give me back control. But I don't know when they will deem to allow me to control the character again, so I'm constantly impatient and worrying it will take half a second for me to react to being a player and not a watcher and the stupid cut scene will cost me some health. CU7 5C3N35 R teh 5UCK!!!!

Digra call for papers out

user — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 05:39:42 +0000

As the title says, the DiGRA 2005 Call For Papers is out. Deadline is in November. June can't come soon enough! I guess this means I need to finally finish up this damn incomplete so I can try to present it at the conference!

Illiterate Fools!!!

user — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:12:01 +0000

I've been having weird dreams lately. The other night I woke up from a dream about either a dissertation defence or a question and answer session after giving a colloquium. After I had finished waking up screaming and making sure there weren't any professors hiding under my bed, I started thinking that so far in my graduate school career I've had to explain myself to people who had no experience with videogames. That is pretty crazy. When I get to the point of having to put together a dissertation committee I am going to force them to sit down and play some Counter-Strike. But more than that, I have to think of how many pages I have had to fill with basic background information about videogames. As I lay there in be trying to fall back asleep, I realized that nothing is more of a testament to the fact that there really is a literacy to videogames than the fact that every time I go to write a paper for a class, I have to spend a few pages explaining what the hell it is that I'm talking about. So it is sort of a meta-commentary on the project that I am trying to make in and of itself. I'm trying to explain that there is a set of skills that one needs to develop to play most videogames and there I am having to give an education to my professors every time I write about it! Associated with this act of explaining videogames to someone who doesn't play them is the moral dilemma: do I have to write this crap again, or should I just cut and paste it from another paper? I like to think I have a pretty strict moral code, so I usually end up re-inventing the wheel every time, but hopefully there will come a time when I won't have to do that. Finally, since I mentioned a few posts ago that the videogames documentaries are creating a canon for the history of videogames, I am aware of the ways in which my constant rewriting of an explanation of videogames, I am engaging in my own canonization process in that I am canonizing what is a videogames and what people do in relationship to videogames. This, of course, has the risk of creating a narrow definition of videogames, gamers and the like, as well as putting blinders on to other forms of gaming. The moral of the story is that i'm sure I'm not the only one that goes through these dilemmas, and we all need to try to be aware of when we think of or write about videogames, we don't do so in too rote or narrow a fashion.

g4m3rs 4 gØd???

user — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 02:01:54 +0000

I was going to go teach Monday and I saw something interesting on a bulletin board. There was a flyer for a Halo tournament. That is far from unusual, but was unusual was that it was hosted by the campus Christian Student Fellowship house. I guess they are trying to use videogames to convert people? Of course to show how much gaming is naturalized in my mind, the fact that Halo was chosen by a group of Christians was probably not accidental did not even occur to me until a friend pointed it out to me!

KISS the Painkiller

user — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 00:40:07 +0000

OK, I've been rather busy with school. However, since I built a new computer a month ago, I certainly have found some time to give it a workout. I've finished Doom 3. It was enjoyable. I jumped quite a bit. Perhaps I am all id (ha! I made a joke!) but I found it satisfying. At least one review I read lamented that the horror was only jumping out of the closet at you style and not psychological in nature. Too bad. I like things jumping out at me. Maybe I'm jaded from killing so many sprites and polygons, but psychological horror doesn't creep me out that much. I like gore. Unfortunately, I hate cut scenes. Why? Why? Why? I don't want some damn cut scene to show me the monster. I want to see the monster myself. I have moved on to Painkiller. I enjoy it. The pure mayhem is fun. The gameplay is a bit simplistic and arcade-y, which is a nice change of pace. There ain't no reading of memos or combinations to remember, just monsters to chop up. Sorry story people, there is something to be said for just running around killing bad guys. I don't know what the bad guys in Painkiller are supposed to be, and I don't really care. I mean there are skeletons in suits of armor. What is their motivation? What is their backstory? I don't care. They are tying to kill me, ergo I will shoot and chop them into little bits. While some have compared Painkiller to Blood or Serious Sam, it reminds me most of KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child. The KISS game was actually really fun -- even if, like me, you don't wish to rock and roll every night and/or party every day. The mayhem and weird weapons and shooting are all good mindless fun. I give them both nine thumbs up. Now, don't ask me what the story of the KISS game is, because I have no idea.

online gaming without nubes? Is it possible???

user — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 05:44:37 +0000

I broke down and did the old Steam pre-order of Half-Life 2. I know I'm such a sucker. So even though I'm hip deep in Painkiller (I hate that swamp monster so much!!!) I couldn't resist trying out the Source Engine version of Counter-Strike. Guess what? I've put in 2-3 hours and haven't seen any trash talking or people just acting like asses yet. Wow! Now I'm sure they are out there, but it is certainly refreshing to be alb e to play CS without jerks. That most jerks don't seem to be on the new version yet is an interesting phenomenon. Basically, the group of people playing CS:S right now are the hardest of the hard core and who have the money to spend to buy the pre-order. Which raises the question of who lamers really are. Are they really 13 year olds? Are they people who don't have the computer to run the new version? Are they casual gamers? It will be interesting to see how the new CS community develops and what will happen when Half-Life 2 finally hits the shelves. On a related note, CS:Condition Zero came with the Steam package I bought and while I was waiting for the Source version to download, I started playing it. It is fun to play with the bots, but boring as heck when you die. What I found interesting though was the fact that CS has one version of the maps, CS:CZ has another version and CS:S has a third. So we have a constant process of remaking the same maps (not to mention the older versions of some maps that have evolved through the betas of CS). It is an interesting process which has some similarities to Lucas' constant tweaking of Star Wars. What is interesting, however, is that I haven't found anyone lamenting about how the old versions of the maps are better, unlike the constant lamenting of the original versions of Star Wars. Whether this is, again, a case of only the hardest of the hardcore playing the game at the moment, with criticisms yet to come, or somehow revisions of levels seem to function in a different way for players than revisions of films do for watchers is yet to be seen. Despite the fact that CS:CZ comes with "Deleted Scenes" I wonder if some day there will be a "Special Edition" of Counter-Strike that features tons of various versions of the Dust and Office. If they reinstate the jailbreak and VIP modes and include Jeepathon2k you can count me in!

so much to do and so little time...

user — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 02:13:12 +0000

As we get to the middle of the school semester, the stresses of life as a graduate student are piling up. Students are giving me assignments, like it's my JOB to teach them or something! And I have my own assignments due. I'm only writing one paper about videogames this semester, but that doesn't mean that I'm not submitting to conferences. The PCA deadline is November 1st and the DiGRA is soon after, so if you want to submit to either, you better get a move on. Oh, and write me a proposal too while you are at it! Since I do have my new computer, I am making time to continue to play videogames. Painkiller is taking up most of my time, but I'm also still getting killed by people online in CounterStrike. It is interesting how I manage to make time to play games, but not going to the recycling center... I guess I have my priorities in order! The big news is of course the new GTA game coming out soon. Just wait until our good friend Jack Thompson rears up his head to condemn it. I know he is busy suing people in England, but I'm sure he'll find time to talk to some lazy journalist who doesn't know anything about his credibility (or lack thereof in my eyes...) Oh well, time to go grade some more student papers...

I Don't Really Love Gold(en Eye 2)

user — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 17:27:17 +0000

I got the chance to play a bit of the new GoldenEye yesterday. Now, I'm not some big hig muckety muck or anything, there was a booth set up on campus and had it, the new prince of persia, and a couple other games that aren't out yet. Unfortunatly, I was running late for class and was only able to play GoldenEye2 for like 5 minutes. 5 minutes of pure hell! Now this won't be a real preview or anything, but a mini-rant. I pretty much play FPS games every day. But I play them on computers. You know where this is going, right? IT took me the entire time to figure out how to control the damn game. FPS games simply aren't made for controlers. I never got the hang of Halo (especially driving the damn vehicals) and I certainly wasn't able to get the hang of GoldenEye2 in five minutes. I know the first one as well as Halo are insanely popular, but you can put it right up there with the Sims on the list of things about gaming that I don't get. If you get it, more power to you. I don't get the appeal of CSI or Law and Order either, so what kind of judge am I? Other than that, the game pretty much looked like crud as well. It looked like is was using a first generation Lithtech engine. I only saw one level, so it might have been just that level. The rest may be beautiful as any other game on the market, but that level certainly wasn't.

Playing to wait and Waiting to play

user — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 02:14:59 +0000

In anticipation of the release of the big games, Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, I'm going away from the FPS games. I'm preparing to write a paper about depictions of colonialism and empire in gaming and so I am starting to head towards wargaming for the first time. On the way there, I found a cheap copy of Civ3 and I've became 100% addicted to it in just the same way I was addicted to Civ2. Not really related to colonialism, but it will do until the "H" games come out. Of course, if anyone knows of any games that deal with colonialism (apart from the Civ spinoff Colonization, that is), drop off a comment. There is always a lot of talk about "Why can't games be about broader topics" and yet here we have some games that are about something as complex as colonialism and yet tends to treat the topic in rather black and white terms (with all the racial coding implicit in that statement). But the Digra proposal deadline is just a couple weeks ago, so I need to get that taken care of first!

Ashamed to be a Gamer

user — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 20:46:51 +0000

I was in the local bookstore today looking through the magazines and for teh first time in a long while I became ashamed to be a gamer. While looking through the rack of gaming mags I saw the following: Now I had heard about the things with videogame characters appearing in Playboy, but a whole magazine devoted to videogame women? That's just sad. And a gaming mag using a woman to sell their mag? Is the game mag industry that competitive? So is there anyone out there willing to admit they bought either of these without a sense of shame or irony?

Oops, I did it again...

user — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 18:40:19 +0000

It seems like my last post has created a tempest in a teapot. Unlike the last time I got into a flamewar, I didn't think anyone would react so negatively, and I didn't even imply anyone was an elitist bastard this time! While some of the comments are reasoned and sound, some sound like they protest too much. Sorry I implied that it was wierd to want to look at half naked videogame characters. And I'm sorry that my parents gave me a name that doesn't fit in with your normative idea of what a name should be. I'm glad that Tore over at vesterblog sympathises with me, because from the comments I thought I might be the only one who thinks the whole deal is a little weird. Seriously though, someone explain the appeal of half naked videogame characters when pictures of real people are so easilly available. Please.

You Don't Know Jack... Thompson

user — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 20:54:19 +0000

There are two old sayings, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt" and "Brevity is the soul of wit." However, when it comes to certain people, these sayings are fairly contradictory. Our favorite anti-videogame lawyer, Jack Thompson has been answering some questions and the answers aren't quite what some were expecting. Over at Kotaku, when they aren't busy making witty comments about my purchasing habits, have been having an email conversation with Jack Thompson who has provided some very short, but very telling answers to their questions. Over at slashdot, the story was posted and some people don't seem to want to believe it is legit. I feel fairly certain that this is indeed consistent with the Jack we all know and love. I made the following post:

People are saying that this is fake. But based on other email comments I have seen from Jack Thompson, this is totally keeping in line with his responses. In a thread on a videogame forum there are people who claim that they have emailed Thompson and got such pithy responses as: "the rubbish is up your cranium, take it out," "you're biased against lawyers. grow a brain," "No, actually it's all about ignorant gamers," "You don't know my motives, so don't try guessing," and "children are allowed to buy them. do your research, junior." In another email exchange I've found, he basically says, that he would rather sue videogame companies than have laws passed. Finally, Thompson is also famous for being the lawyer behind the Two Live Crew obsenity trials, , and most bizarrely, claiming that Janet Reno was unfit for office in Florida because she was gay and people would blackmail her because of it (except by making a public deal of it, wouldn't that make it impossible to blackmail her). As well as harrassing a local DJ Neil Rogers who had to get a restraining order taken out against against him. In short, Jack Thompson is certainly 100% capable of the odd responses stated in the article. There is actually lots more odd things that this lawyer has done. Do a search for "jack Thompson" and videogames and tons of stuff will come up about him.

I find the fact that some are hesitant to believe that a lawyer would respond in or act in such a manner to be very interesting. It is because of this that I have decided that Jack Thompson and his anti-videogame violence efforts are in fact NOT real. He is, as U2 said, even better than the real thing. And what better type of layer to have crusading against a virtual entertainment than one that is hyperreal, or simulacra. He is against a medium that some could argue is composed of simulacra (simulacri?), says things that we don't believe are true and people don't believe that he actually said the things people attribute to him. Jack Thomson: Postmodern Attorney. You don't have to believe in him because he doesn't believe in you.

Jack Thompson addendum

user — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 20:31:25 +0000

Jack Thompson, Post-Modern Attorney answers more emails.

My (Half-Life) 2 Cents Worth

user — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:43:09 +0000

While I didn't stay up late for the unocking of Half-Life 2, I did get up a bit early to play and in teh hour and a half I've played, I give it thumbs up. I like the consistency of the sounds for things and I find the game to be a much more tense experience than the first one so far. Graphics are pretty but, like Doom 3, I find myself numb to them after a while and just sort of expect things to look that well. OK, back to playing... You know it really is inconsiderate of Valve to release this game right when I am supposed to be writing papers and grading!!!

Too Busy to Play Games????

user — Sun, 28 Nov 2004 17:52:25 +0000

Apparently not, even though I've got 3 papers due in two weeks and 20+ papers to grade by tomorrow (what do my students think? It's my job to teach them or something? Kids these days!) I've managed to finish Half-Life 2 in less than a week and put in some record length sessions with Civilization 3. At least the last one is for a paper. I writing about depictions of Imerialism and colonialism in videogames for a class on Empire and colonialism. Funny how you can shove videogames into any class. My post about videogame girls continues to get comments. It is interesting to see the reaction to it. I got over 1000 hits one day with people reading it. I also got linked to by some porn blog, which caused some interesting reactions from people who came here from that site I would guess. OK, time to grade. Weeee!!! A grad student's work is never done...

a quick note

user — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 20:38:31 +0000

Just a quick note to post that the lack of posts is perhaps due in no small part that i have to write 35 pages for 3 different papers by next week. And to make it worse, only ONE of them is videogame related! Oh, the humanity!

Civilization and Colonialism and Empire

user — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 18:25:27 +0000

I just turned in my paper about Colonialism and Empire in the Civilization series. I'm certainly not the first to write about it. However, it did take me a while to hunt down those who have. So in the interests of making it easier for people to find sources about colonialism and empire in Sid Meier's Civilization series, here is my Works Cited: WORKS CITED

Avalon Hill. ?Civilisation.? 1981.
Bako Bitz. ?The Culture of Civilization III.? Jan. 15, 2002. Joystick101.org. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://web.archive.org/web/20040324004449/http://www.joystick101.org/story/2002/1/12/222013/422>.
?Civilization (board game).? Wikipedia. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_board_game>.
?The Civilization Legacy.? The Official Civilization III Web Site. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://www.civ3.com/legacy.cfm>.
Chick, Tom. ?The Teaching Game: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Civilization.? Jan 2002. CGOnline.com. <http://web.archive.org/web/20020124200343/http://www.cgonline.com/features/020118-c2-f1.html>.
Civ3.com. The Official Civilization III Web Site. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://civ3.com/>.
Civilization 3 Complete. Atari, 2004.
Douglas, Christopher. ??You Have Unleashed a Horde of Barbarians!?: Fighting Indians, Playing Games, Forming Disciplines.? Post Modern Culture 13.1 (Sep, 2002). Dec. 7 2004. <http://alpha.furman.edu/~cdouglas/barbarian.htm>.
Friedman, Ted. ?Civilization and Its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and Space.? Nov. 22, 1997. Personal Site. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://www.duke.edu/~tlove/civ.htm>.
Guha, Ranajit. Introduction. A Subaltern Studies Reader, 1986-1995. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. ix-xxii.
Lammes, Sybille. ?On the Border: Pleasures of Exploration and Colonial Mastery in Civilization III Play the World.? Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference. Eds. Copier, Marinka and Joost Raessens. Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2003, 120-29
Mehta, Uday Singh. Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. London, Beacon, 1965 (1957).
Meyers, David. ?Bombs, Barbarians, And Backstories: Meaning-Making Within Sid Meier's Civilization.? Forthcoming in Ludologica: Videogames D'autore: Civilization And Its Discontents. Vitual History. Real Fantasies. Ed. Matteo Bittanti. Milan, Italy: Edizioni Unicopli. <http://www.loyno.edu/%7Edmyers/F99%20classes/Myers_BombsBarbarians_DRAFT.rtf>.
Moumouni. ?Pretty Historically Correct.? Jan. 20, 2002. Joystick101.org. Dec. 7, 2004. <http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:mSg0dZG2sg8J:www.joystick101.org/comments/2002/1/12/222013/422/13++site:www.joystick101.org++%22culture+of+CIVILIZATION+III&hl=en>.
Poblocki, Kacper. ?Becoming-State. The Bio-Cultural Imperialism of Sid Meier's Civilization.? Focaal -- European Journal of Anthropology 39 (2002): 163-177. <http://www.focaal.box.nl/previous/Forum%20focaal39.pdf >.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. ?Introduction.? The Colonizer and the Colonized. By Memmi, Albert. London, Beacon, 1965 (1957).
Squire, Kurt. Replaying History: Learning World History Through Playing Civilization III. Diss. Indiana University, 2004.
Stephenson, William. The Microserfs are Revolting: Sid Meier?s Civilization II. Bad Subjects 45 (Oct 1999). Dec, 7 2004 <http://bad.eserver.org/issues/1999/45/stephenson.html >.
?Wargaming.? Wikipedia. Dec. 7, 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming>.

gaming gaming gaming

user — Sun, 19 Dec 2004 20:33:17 +0000

I just submitted my final grades to the university, so my semester is officially over! Of course to celebrate, I have been playing lots of games. I still haven't noticed any real trash talking on Counter-Strike:Source, so maybe trashtalkers really ARE 13 year old kids? It will be itneresting to see if lots of kids get Halk-Life 2 for Christmas and the ammount of crap in CS:S goes up noticably. I've been trying to get into Deus Ex 2, but I just can't seem to do it. Too much takling and the gun feels too wimpy. Continuing my long running hatred of the Unreal engine, Deus Ex 2 has already crashed once on me and this new computer never crashed on Doom 3 or Half-Life 2,,, I've also been playing a lot of Civ3. It was all research, I swear! I got an A on the paper, so I guess I might try to publish it at some point. Below is a portion of the first page. Anyone interestested in the rest can drop me an email.

The Civilization games have been lauded as "The Best Game of All Time" by Computer Gaming World magazine and the "Greatest Computer Strategy Game of All-Time" by Time magazine, won countless other awards and is responsible for a slew of both spin-offs as well as knock-offs (Friedman, Civ3.com). It has even been the subject of numerous studies into the educational potential of videogames having been declared by one scholar as, "a particularly intriguing tool for studying world history in that it allows students to examine relationships among geography, politics, economics, and history over thousands of years and from multiple perspectives" (Squire 9). Despite these accolades, the Civ games have not gone uncritiqued by scholars who have noted some of the Imperialist choices that have influenced the game designs. While many traditional forms of explicit colonialism have fallen to the wayside, and historians have reexamined the way in which histories of colonization is presented, to a large extent, historically-inspired popular entertainments have failed to rethink the history which they purport to present. In wargaming and in historical simulations, issues are presented in a simplistic good vs. bad format which almost always either depicts the European as good while those whose lands were colonized as bad or they are depicted in such a manner that all civilizations have the same goals and structure. In this paper the ways in which Sid Meier's Civilization videogames present a highly simplistic notion of colonization, imperialism and empire will be discovered. Also explored will be the ways in which the game reinforces traditional notions of good civilizations vs. bad (or barbaric) civilizations, what it means to be civilized, as well as the ways in which the game makes other civilizations appear either completely western or so inscrutably Other that the only way to deal with them is through eradication. The purpose of this is not to condemn the Civilization series, its creator, or players as "bad" but, rather, to demonstrate the ways in which the legacies of colonialism and classical liberalism continue to play themselves out in places as seemingly benign as our entertainments and how our current culture remains a Civilization of Colonialism.

books? they still make those?

user — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 17:10:55 +0000

I was flipping through my copy of Electronic Gaming Monthly and saw an ad for something I don't remember ever seeing an ad for in a gaming magazine before: a book! Of course it was for a novelization of Splinter Cell, but still, it was interesting to see in a gaming mag. Also of note was although it uses the logo for Splinter Cell, it doesn't have a picture from the game on it, but rather a fairly generic picture. On another note entirely, count me as a big supporter of Valve's Steam. I've never had any problems with it that I know many have had, but the number one reason I am for it, is no more damn cd checks. Having built a new system and only gotten around to putting one cd drive in it, I have to say that cd switching sucks ass. The issue of switching cds was so irritating that I attempted to delve into the world of no-cd hacks, to no success. One thing that I was originally in favor of regarding Steam was that on the older games like Counter-Strike in its various versions, Source and Condition Zero, didn't have one of those stupid splash screens that tells you who made the game. So imagine my anger when HL2 had their stupid Valve screen. We know who made the game! Why do you need to remind us every single time we start the games? At least there is only one, I'm playing Deus Ex 2 and it has at least 3. Note to game developers: stop pissing off your customers! Seriously, does that stupid splash screen really help? Does anyone really think of Neversoft when they think of Tony Hawk???

Last Post of the Year!!!

user — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:45:30 +0000

Winding down from the end of the semester rush, and getting reaquainted with my tv and computer. Not specifically related to videogames, I found a few new tools invaluable for modern researchers. The first, and everyone is talking about it, is Google Scholar. Sure, there are limitations to it, as some have noted, but when you are doing research on a topic like videogames but don't care about violence, google's quality sure cuts down the amount of time it takes to find stuff. And that, for me, is what I've been waiting for, is better quality in academic search, not quantity. Ebsco and jstor are cool and all, but sometimes they can be impossible to use effectively. Best of all, there is a search plugin for Firefox that lets you search just google scholar rather than have to go to the url to search it. I've found several articles that were in the traditional academic databases but didn't turn up untill I used google scholar. Another great tool for academic life is Abbyy's PDF Transformer, which as one might imaging, turns PDF's into text. There's nothing that frustrates me more about writing papers than having to retype block quotes. With this, you just convert it to a .rtf file and cut and paste quotes to your heart's content. Most classes use e-reserves now, which are just articles scanned into pdf files, and the converter makes it a lot easier. (most OCR software will do this as well, but the PDF Transformer is cheaper). Amazon.com's Look Inside the Book and Search Inside the Book feature which is great if you can't remember where inside a book a certain quote was. If you are looking for a good quote, or a source for it, A9 is pretty good because is uses google's database and also lets you use the "search inside the book" feature at the same time. There is also a Firefox search plugin for A9 too. This next is kind of a dark tip, but related to PDF Transformer, at least in the way in which I use it is, because if you work at it a little, you can get access to page Amazon shows you (that file is on your computer somewhere if you look for it!) and using pdf transformer turn it into text. You can also look at more than just the 3 pages in a row that Amazon lets you by just "searching inside the book" for the page number. There is a limit to the total number of pages Amazon will let you see per day, however, as I found out when I tried to get a whole article from a book that way once... LIke I said, none of those have much to do with videogames, but they certainly made my life easier and saved me a few trips to the library when I was writing about videogames

kids and games and fears

user — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 19:01:56 +0000

Just before Christmas, on my drive to my parents' house, I was listening to AM talk radio and ran across a station discussion kids playing poker. There were specifically discussing a 12/20/2004 story by Marco R. della Cava that appeared in USA Today under the title, "Poker at an early age: Not just another teen fad." According to the article:

Now kids as young as 10 are being dealt hands, often with parents' approval. Poker paraphernalia is being hawked everywhere from supermarkets to kiddie emporiums such as Toys R Us. All of which rings alarm bells for gambling addiction experts who warn that poker could be a slippery slope into other high-risk activities.

To those of use that play videogames, this sounds awfully familiar. From my experiences with teaching college undergrads, I can attest that among the men Texas Hold 'Em is very popular, almost as popular as videogames. As someone who worked in a casino for a little over 2 years, I've seen first hand the dangers of gambling. (Of course the fact that the article talks about the dangers of gambling doesn't stop at least the online version from linking to a page on how to play!) On the radio show almost everyone agreed that there wasn't much harm in kids playing poker, and I more or less agree. However, it is interesting that there isn't more of an uproar about the evils of poker. There are a few stories, but I've yet to see anything about banning it or anything. It seems odd that a game where losing money is a built in part of the way the game works should raise fewer concerns in parents than a videogame which would have to have negative consequences when you weren't even playing it to be a danger. However, if you read the article closely, you will noticed that it places the blame on poker's popularity squarely on television:

Why now? Flick on your TV. Expanding poker tournament coverage on ESPN, the Travel Channel and Bravo has had two compelling effects. First, the slickly produced shows (ESPN employs more than 20 cameras, comparable to what's used on major sporting events) have taught kids the fundamentals of a wildly popular version of the game known as Texas Hold 'Em, which challenges players to incorporate face-up table cards into their hands. Second, TV has granted quasi-celebrity status to a hip generation of poker stars who can lose tens of thousands with James Bond-like panache. Hey, why suffer through the indignities of Survivor when you can make a mint with a steely gaze and a bit of luck?

While no one can argue that TV is responsible for the current popularity of poker, it seems that rather than having some inherent appeal to it, poker is attractive because TV has made it that way. Now right or wrong, that is interesting because the subtext here seems to be that, once again, it is the media's fault! Why else would it matter that the show was "slickly produced?" By including that "fact," it seems that the author seems to hold an Adorno-esque opinion of television in that kids can be won over by the glitz and glamour of it, rather than having anything to do with the appeals of poker in and of itself. The reason this is so interesting to me is that by discussing the effect of television, the author of the article, at least in part, makes this no so much that poker is evil, but that television is bad! So once again we have a subtext that implies that if it needs electricity, it is seductive and can manipulate us.

Stupid is as Stupid Does...

user — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 18:12:26 +0000

I bought myself a settop DVD recorder for Christmas and on my Christmas break I've been copying over to DVD all the videogame stuff I've recorded on VHS. Yesterday I watched some of the videogames are evil/moral panic stuff including First-Person Shooter (the internet archive has a cached copy of the site which seems to have gone offline, but because it was all fancy flash, not much is left of it) which details the story of the filmmaker and his attempt to understand his son who is obsessed with Counter-Strike. I know when I become a parent my first impulse will be to make a movie about my son rather than to try to actual join in and play the game myself. I also watched PBS's The Video Game Revolution which, while a history and not nearly as moral panic-y as First Person Shooter, contains segments with a psychologist who closely monitors his son's videogame playing. That isn't a problem, because any responsible parent should do that. However, instead of actually, you know, turning off the game and controlling the situation, the father repeatedly tells the kid to turn it off while the kid whines and moans -- but continues to keep playing. Now I'm not a parent, and it is certainly easy to gel like an expert when you aren't one yourself, but it seems odd that these two examples, in which both fathers have some sort of credibility lent to them by their profession, filmmaker and psychologist, both seem so clueless not only about videogames but how to parent. Is it any wonder then that people who seem so clueless about their children also seem so clueless about what they children are doing? I guess that is why we need people like Jack Thompson to try and save us from ourselves...

Different (Red) Factions, Different Experiences

user — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 15:13:07 +0000

In my continuing marathon of gaming before classes start again, I've completed Deus Ex 2 and have finished playing Red Faction 2. Notice I didn't say I completed it. I couldn't force myself to make it through the final boss battle but other than that, both games were fun in their own way. I must admit that after playing Doom 3, Half-Life 2 and Deus Ex 2, to start up Red Faction 2 was quite a shock. I have written before that the graphics of the new games were pretty naturalized for me and I didn't really notice them. However, when I saw Red Faction 2's two year old graphics, I suddenly did appreciate the prettiness of the other games, especially when I jumped into Counter-Strike:Source or HL2 Deathmatch. Because I went from Deus Ex 2 to Red Faction 2, in addition to comparing their graphics, I also couldn't help myself from comparing other aspects. The first thing I noticed was that both games betray their console heritage. I played both of them on my l33t computer, rather than the x-box and while both played find with keyboard and mouse, there were obvious consessions made for the consoles. The most talked about console feature in Deus Ex 2 was the small levels and the frequent loading. Interestingly, Red Faction 2 had small levels too, but they weren't nearly as frustrating as Deus Ex 2's -- and in fact, because Red Faction 2 doesn't feature any in game saves -- another console carry over -- the short levels were actually welcome. That I found myself hoping to end the level in Red Faction 2, and thus automatically save my progress, and yet dreading loading a level in Deus Ex 2 was interesting. Constant backtracking was the reason why the small levels in Deus Ex stuck out so much. I especially dreaded settings like Cairo where you had to backtrack through one level just to get to the other level you wanted to go to. I found myself longing for the little lightening bolt thingys that Riven had where you could just zip past things and skip the stuff in between. Red Faction 2, on the other hand, is purely linear with no backtracking through levels. So we have one game that features non-linear gameplay, which is supposed to be the hottness, and one that features linear gameplay, which is supposed to be lame and broke-down, and yet the linear gameplay is less frustrating. Now I'm not saying red Faction 2 is better than Deus Ex 2 because I don't think that is the case at all. I'm saying that gameplay is meaningless if the technology behind it isn't up to par. Deus Ex 2 looked pretty and had progressive gameplay, but the technology of the levels hindered the gameplay and made it frustrating. Red Faction 2, on the other hand, managed to somehow turn 3 liabilities - short levels, linear gameplay, and no in-game saves, which are both technological limits and non-progressive gameplay, and make it work. Red Faction 2 had a lot of other problems, losing the Mars setting, continued underuse of their Geo-Mod technology, stupid cut scenes, and lame characters just to name a few, but they managed to make an OK game. Playing these two games back to back made me stop and rethink the relationship between gameplay and technology and how gameplay needs to work with the limits of the game engines to hide the limitations of the engine. For the most part Red Faction 2 managed to hide the limitations of their engine, while Deus Ex 2's gameplay unfortunately highlighted the limitations of its engine.

Games as Texts...

user — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 02:42:03 +0000

In between playing Thief 3, I got a couple books in the mail the other day and I've started reading Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar and The Making of Doom 3. Both books are visually amazing, but they are interesting in comparison to each other. The Doom 3 book is full of suitably scary and gothy fonts and layout, while the Half-Life 2 book is more slick and streamlined. The Doom 3 paperback, Half-Life 2 hardback. It is obvious that they meant the Half-Life 2 book to be more of a coffetable book. So far the Half-Life book is much more informative than the Doom one, at least in terms of background info. The Doom book is much more concerned with the technical things, while the Half-Life one is a more historical book. The biggest thing though is that the Doom book has an author, Steven Kent, while the Half-Life book is simply "by Valve." Who knew that beside making games, the folks at Valve wrote books? Seriously though, while the book is full of lots of quotes, almost like a commentary track on a DVD, there still had to be someone who sat down and interviewed these people and put all this into some shape. Since I tend to spend a lot of time interviewing people and putting those interviews into some sort of order, I'd like to see the person who did that get some sort of credit besides contributing editor or manager. It is interesting that a company like Valve that has had issues with people stealing their work, would put out a book without attributing it to someone. There's all kinds of theft in the world. Just because some of it is legal doesn't mean it is any more right... On another note this is my 101st post on movable type (ok, sure there might have been a couple test posts in there, but still!) Of course before I used movable type, I had a site on geocities that I put up sometime back in 2001, and then started using blogger in April of 2002. I finally moved to my own dot com site in January of 2004 where I will be for a long time to come. 101 posts in a little over a year, not so bad, if I do say so myself. Thanks for reading!

The end of IU's EA University???

user — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:52:41 +0000

With EA buying out everything, I was interested to see some local news about EA. I've previously discussed EA's viral marketing and attempt to turn my school into EA University, well it seems that this is in danger of coming to an end! According to the Indiana Daily Student, the guy who puts up all those stickers (and there are new ones up, but my camera is in the shop so I can't take pictures of them) is going "to leave void in campus program." While there is no doubt the guy does a great job and deserves every penny he gets paid, it seems odd that the article doesn't seem to question the mixing of academics and consumerism. You would at least think it would mention all the damn stickers! Whoever fills the "void" on campus, it will be very interesting to follow the how gaming companies continue to spend money on advertising on college campuses.

Real world ethics and gaming?

user — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 00:08:33 +0000

It is often debated whether videogames are ruining the morals and ethics of youth, however, I have a different dilemma in mind. The question at hand is, "Is it acceptable to buy a game or other form of entertainment if you know that one of the people who created it holds views that you strongly disagree with?" This is not a hypothetical situation, but rather one based firmly in our modern world for it seems that noted science fiction writer Orson Scott Card, who wrote a column for Compute magazine for many years, has a few things in the works that are of interest to me. He is working on the Advent trilogy of games, the makers of A Tale in the Desert have just just announced a MMORPG based on one of his stories, and he is going to write Ultimate Iron Man for Marvel comics. And he is also an outspoken critic of homosexuality and gay marriage. I'm not here to debate if he is right or wrong. I can't change your mind and you can't change mine. I also think he has every right to say and think whatever he wants. The question is, just because he is involved in something that sounds interesting, should I support him by giving him my money? I don't think I will, but I'm interested in what others think.

Super Bowl Sunday!

user — Sun, 06 Feb 2005 15:59:35 +0000

While I don't really care about the Super Bowl, with the news that EA has exclusive rights to make NFL games, it will be kind of sad that the sports shows will only be able to have Madden as the computer game to predict the winner instead of running all the football games. I'm in the midst of taking classes and don't have much time for gaming myself, but am managing to find some time to play Dope Wars and was thinking about the differences between these little "time waster" games and the longer games that can take days to play. I don't think that there has been much investigation between the different geneologies and purposes that they games have. Why don't you go work on that and get back to me, ok?

Game Blogs

user — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 22:42:38 +0000

Just a quick FYI, Game-Blogs seems to be back up. I know there are other blog aggregators out there, but the specificity of Game-Blogs makes it a fav or mine. And of course I also like going there and seeing how many people have clicked on one of my posts over there!

I Hate Social Scientists

user — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 15:14:51 +0000

My research involves ethnography and my PhD minor is Anthropology. As such, I've sent a lot of time in classes talking about the role of the researcher and how the researcher brings biases and assumptions to the study. Apparently, this type of self searching and introspection doesn't seem as evident for many people doing social science "experiments" especially our friends who seem convinced that videogames are bad. Even if the evidence doesn't support their hypothesis, it doesn't seem to stop them from finding a reason why even not finding anything wrong is a problem. The most recent case in point comes from a Washington Post article Students See Video Games As Harmless, Study Finds (registration required, but the story has since been picked up by other papers). Now, certainly, I can't be too hasty in condemning the research because after all, this is being filtered through the newspaper writer's writing and, therefore, might not accurately represent the findings or beliefs of the researcher. Additionally, I have my own agenda. I think I have made that clear. All that being said, the article paints a picture that is not very rosy. The article talks about a research study conducted by University of Maryland professor Melanie Killen in which:

Researchers showed them images from a pair of over-the-top video games, one an "extreme" golf outing with strippers as caddies, the other a blood-and-entrails affair. Then, they were asked if what they had seen could be harmful.

First of all, they weren't really from videogames.

Killen and fellow researchers at the University of Maryland's Human Development Department interviewed more than 100 college students, whose average age was 19, for 45 minutes each. They showed them images from a series of imaginary video games, each one modeled on a familiar genre in the gaming industry.

Unfortunately, this little detail isn't mentioned until halfway through the article. Even so, "most subjects understood that the two over-the-top games depicted negative themes and harmful stereotypes." One would think, great, this study proves that games know that there are negative stereotypes in games. Wrong. The very next sentence makes this abundantly clear, "But they failed to see how that content could harm them." The article ends with: "It's not like they were in denial about stereotypes," Killen said. "But they for some reason think it's not going to affect them." So there it is, the assumption that exposure to stereotypes, even if you know that they are negative stereotypes is harmful. Gamers can't win. Period. And it isn't like any other form of media has stereotypes or anything... Of course, the article in and of itself is horrible and it is entirely possible that the biases that seem to come from Killen's research are from Daniel de Vise the article's author. In just one article, in addition to the findings of Killen and her team, de Vise manages to bring up Columbine, make a drive-by swipe at Grand Theft Auto, talk about how "photorealistic" the graphics have become, and quote Craig A. Anderson who has spent much of his academic career rehashing the same arguments that media and videogames in particular are evil and make you go crazy and kill people. Wow! All that is missing is a quote from Grossman and Thompson (either Jack or Robert)!

All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

user — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 23:02:43 +0000

Busy busy busy. The only thing I have time for is playing minigames lately. Lots of DopeWars, Risk and Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. There is certainly something to be said for these type of short games. I'm slowly preparing for a couple conferences, the Popular Culture Association at the end of March and then the DiGRA Conference in Vancouver in June. West coast here I come!

60 minutes ...for me to poop on!

user — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 17:41:36 +0000

Oh you just know I got something to say about our friend Jack Thompson's appearance on 60 Minutes last week in a story about how evil Grand Theft Auto is. Although Cathode Tan has done a far more complete job of dissection the (il)logic of Jack Thompson Postmodern Attorney. I just expect Jack Thompson to say that videogames are evil. What I don't expect is for 60 Minutes, allegedly one of the most respected new programs on the American airwaves, to do a story on videogame violence without any real opposing side being presented or without seeming to stop and question the legitimacy of Thompson who has had a long history of harassing Janet Reno as well as a Miami DJ who finally had to take out a restraining order against him. If only 60 Minutes could have spent some time doing research. I know that typing lawyer "Jack Thompson" into google is really tough, but I'm sure they could get an intern to do it or something. Then there is also the fact that Ed Bradley, he with the hip earring, didn't seem to bother playing Grand Theft Auto, but just watched someone play it. So does that mean I can just read the screenplay of a film and say that is the same as having seen the film? Once again, if only 60 Minutes could get some interns to take an hour or so to teach Ed Bradley how to play a game. Now I don't want to say that 60 Minutes is for old people who like to say things like, "Those damn kids these days!" but it certainly seems like the only purpose of this story is just to scare people. No fact checking seems to have been done. No verification of the authority of the accusations. The only person they talked to was from the ESA and didn't do much to defend himself. If 60 Minutes is one of the most respected television news programs, then television news is nothing more than a bunch of sloppy fear mongers who are out of touch with reality. Maybe that's the real story 60 Minutes was running last week...

A "Far Cry" from how it used to be...

user — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 17:18:21 +0000

A long time ago I wrote:

Dear Game Developers, Stop pissing me off. Let me use both of my cd drives when I install your games. Thank You.

Well, yesterday I saw Far Cry on sale for $19.99 and so I bought it. Unfortunately, it wasn't the DVD version, but the 5 CD version. I got home and began to install it. I put disk one in my main cd drive (which is of course a dvd drive...) and put disk 2 in my other cd drive (which, of course, is also a dvd drive... see a pattern here?). I had anticipated on trying to switch the drive letter when it asked for disk 2. However, imagine my surprise when it asked for disk 3! It automatically knew that I had disk 2 in the other drive and didn't even ask me for it. Sweet! I applaud Crytek or ubisoft or whoever it was that made the installer smart enough to know I have two disk drives! However, as far as the game itself goes... All of you people that gave it 90% and higher. Where can I get some of that crack you're smoking? I mean, I'm only an hour into it or so, but the game seems really blaa and unremarkable. Sure it is all outside, but that's more or less the only remarkable feature I've seen so far. Of course I have barely gotten into it, so I won't judge it too harshly, yet. It might get more awesomness-ativity later on. In other news, I'm heading up to Chicago Monday to take in the Game On exhibit. I've been waiting for this to get stateside since I got the book and wrote a review of it (thank goodness for Archive.org! even though Joystick101 is back online, the archives seem to be missing and I can't find my original copy of the review). I'll be sure to give my rundown of the exhibit when I get back in town. Check out some other people's comments over at slashdot.

Jacko continues...

user — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 16:35:01 +0000

At this point I think I need to just go ahead and make a "Jack Thompson" category to file these posts under... Joystiq has a story called, "Thompson vs. Gates, Round 1, which posts a fax that was allegedly sent to Bill Gates by Jack Thompson. In the comments are a couple more examples of his elegant writing style. Yep. I'm sure Ed Bradley is real proud of the story he did featuring Thompson.

Game over man! Game over!

user — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 03:54:10 +0000

I went to the Game On exhibit in Chicago last Monday and I give it thumbs up. I had heard that they used emulators, but almost all the machines there actually were on original hardware. They did have one MAME machine connected to a big screen but the rest were actual arcade machines and consoles. I finally got to play an Atari Jaguar and have to agree that it does have a very odd controller. It seems like it your fingers should go up in the front but it doesn't have trigger or shoulder buttons. There were some omissions, of course. Computer games were under-represented. There was no Doom, or Quake or even Ultima or Diablo. There was, however, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Other omission were online games of all kinds and fighting games (there was a copy of one of the street fighters). In fact, the only FPS game was Metroid Prime which people claim isn't really a FPS at all. Despite these holes, the exhibit was rather complete with everything from Space Invaders to DDR, from Donkey Kong to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. We spend three hours in there playing games. All in all, it was worth the trip. Check it out if you can!

g4m3rs 4 gØd part II: l33t 4 teh lØrd

user — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 03:17:40 +0000

Those with a good memory may remember that back in September I saw a flyer for a Halo party put on by a religious organization. I guess these guys were ahead of the curve. Over at Water Cooler Games, I saw a link to a story about The Saga of the XBox - ''How To Witness Using Halo 2'' that talked about a couple of ministries using Halo 2 as a way of reaching people. The original article, How to Witness Using 'Halo 2' gives more details on it, as well as an interesting interpretation of the Halo story. As someone who once wrote an article comparing Doom to working in a corporation, I can appreciate interesting interpretations. However, I wonder if they wouldn't be better off using Painkiller which is about fighting demons anyway? Still, it is an interesting phenomenon. I wonder how they feel about the laws attempting to ban the sale of games like Halo 2 to minors?

There and back again...

user — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 02:26:22 +0000

So I made it back from the Popular Culture Association in sunny San Diego. There were 6 videogame panels in two days and although I missed a couple, the 4 I caught were great. If you're looking for a nice conference to go to you could do worse than the PCA. The flight back was a nightmare, however. I had a flight from San Diego that left at 10pm pacific time back to Indianapolis.. ...via Newark! I had a 3 hour layover in Newark and didn't get back to Indy until 11:30am the next day. A 6ft4 guy in the back of the plane ain't a god time. While I was waiting in Newark I also had a unique experience. I've got friends from all over the world so I think I've gotten pretty good at understanding non-native speakers of english. The woman working at the airport stumped me though. She had a Mexican accent, which, again, I like to think I can do a pretty good job of understanding. However, on top of that, she had a New Jersey accent! That threw me for a loop. Waiting for me when I got back home was my newest addiction: DDR! I played it at the Game On exhibit in Chicago and realized that I am horribly out of shape, so now I am on the DDR exercise routine! The fat is just melting away!

EA Tattoos IU???

user — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 23:35:09 +0000

I'm not sure if this is legit or an April Fool's joke since I didn't hear anything about it happening, but Gamespot has an article that claims, "EA tattoos Hoosiers with passion for games." It would be odd if it did turn out to be fake that they picked IU out of a hat. On the other hand it might be more odd if it were true. Thanks to Konrad Budziszewski for the heads up!

Just catching up...

user — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:16:24 +0000

It is coming down to the wee days of the semester so I'm pretty busy with coursees and teaching. In fact right now I'm taking a break from grading before I go to a group meeting! On the bright side, I am sitting outside working on my laptop and using the university's wifi, proving that Indiana University is, indeed, the most unwired college campus. On the gaming studies front, I got my paper, "Gaming Mind, Gaming Body: Mind/Body Split for a New Millenium" into the Digra conference a record day early. Then I noticed that I had somehow been removed from the schedual, so I had a mini-panic attack and emailed people and got put back on. Of course, now I seem to be on a panel with game design people, which is odd, but at least I am on the schedual. Now let's just see if I manage to get into the proceedings book rather than just on the DVD with the rest of the riff-raff! On a related front, I've been told that my long in press essay in the Doom: First-Person Reader book from the Ludologica series is still in the works. Maybe some day I will get to read my own work in print. Except the book is in Italian... and I don't know Italian... Of course that means that I can still put it on my vita with some confidence that an US jobs I apply for won't be able to see how bad it is!!! I did manage to find time to finish FarCry. As friends who have played it assured me, it did get better. It is interesting how a game grows on you. There's a paper topic right there! Also it is interesting how a certian small feature can make or break the game. For me, the binoculars that would locate the enemy on the radar and the sniper rifle were essential to my enjoyment of the game. Before I had those, I hated the game. Once I got them, the game became much more fun. OK, 9 more papers to grade and an hour and a half before my meeting. Think I can get them done before the meeting? Me neither. But I'm giving a test tomorrow, so I should be able to finish it during that.

Sick! Sick! Sick!

user — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:16:06 +0000

I'm at that stage where I can feel the flu coming on and I'm dreading it. I just have to stay healthy until Tuesday and then my papers will be written. Just 'till Tuesday. On another note, over at Gamasutra, there is a new article entitled, "The Psychology Behind Games" that uses Mih?ly Cs?kszentmih?lyi's notion of flow. I wish I'd thought of that. Of course I'm just kidding. I did write (link to rtf file) about it and it was a chapter in my Master's thesis. While it seems obvious that it should be applied to developement of games rather than just analysis, I chose not to do so since that wasn't my interest. It is interesting to see someone take that viewpoint on it. It certainly never hurts to have someone else write about Flow. Maybe sometime the idea will catch on.

EA tatoos were legit, I guess

user — Wed, 11 May 2005 15:32:35 +0000

Been pretty busy lately. But now that the Spring semester is over, I should be posting more regularly. I'm sure my faithful readers, all ten of you, will be glad to hear that. Back on the first of April, I wrote about a press release that said that EA was tattooing IU students. At the time I thought it might have been some sort of April Fool's joke since I hadn't heard anything about it. However, it seems like it really happened. Warren Christopher Freiberg wrote a column in the Indiana Daily Student that has the title, Everybody Sells Out Sometimes and he mentions that he was one of the people that got an EA tattoo. The column is about the notion of putting a corporate logo on your body, but it does verify that the tattooing did take place. I stand corrected.

360 degrees of... nothing?

user — Sun, 15 May 2005 16:52:06 +0000

So the biggest gaming news of the week was the big MTV Xbox 360 unveiling. LIke most people, I found it to be totally vapid and lame. (If you didn't catch it, there are torrents out there) For those looking for more substance, there is the ourcolony video as well as tons of other previews. This makes me wonder why Microsoft (oops, I'm sorry, I mean Micro$oft!) is doing it this way. What seems to be going on is a dual pronged launch. The MTV for the mainstream people and the online stuff for the hardcore. However, I can't imagine that the MTV special got anyone excited. It was the exact same thing as the SpikeTV Videogame Awards -- a great example of people who don't play videogames trying ever so hard to make videogames cool. The similarities were striking. The same big warehouse that was dimly lit with laser beams flashing, the same lack of actual videogame content, and many of the same b-grade celebrities. Wow, Elijah Wood plays videogames! (While I loved the Lord of the Rings movies, is there anyone that would describe Elijiah Wood as cool??) This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since MTV and SpikeTV are both owned by Viacom. While this might make the case against media consolidation as well as the case that corporations are full of incompetent people, it also brings us back to Microsoft. If there is any company that is less cool or less sexy than Microsoft, I can't imagine what it is. However, even Microsoft must have realized that this MTV thing wasn't going to satisfy gamers, so they hedged their bets with Our Colony. But if you go to google news and search for Xbox, you'll get lots of hits, but not much coverage from mainstream media. Perhaps the real coverage will come next week with E3, but right now, it doesn't seem like the mainstream media cares. Is Microsoft just throwing money out the window with this then? Sure, they can afford to, but is any of this working? Gamers online are excited about it, but does anyone else care? I've got no thesis statement. I've got not real point here, but the vapid wasteland of the MTV spot combined with the more substantial our colony video as well as the near-astroturfing of the gaming sites makes for interesting advertising. Is it significant the an online video that is only a few minutes long seems to be much better received and much more news worthy than a 30 minute program on MTV? Who knows. But it sure is interesting to kick back and see the hype unfold. The real test will be on the day the Xbox 360 goes on sale.

Videogame addiction watch

user — Mon, 16 May 2005 05:30:27 +0000

A couple weeks ago A&E ran an episode of Intervention that had a kid "addicted" to videogames. Now it seems that The Jane Pauley Show, is having their own episode about video game addiction this Thursday the 19th. Check out the description. I'd expect more from a fellow Hoosier! Mad props to GamePolitics for catching this.

Oh goody...

user — Thu, 19 May 2005 15:11:20 +0000

Watching the Jane Pauly show on "videogame addiction" and, oh joy, they have David Walsh on. Guess what, he says that playing online is a new thing! I guess I was halucinating back in 1992 when Doom came out and I thought I was playing online... (and before anyone says it, I know Doom wasn't the first game to have online multiplayer, but it was the first game I played online)

Oh goody...

user — Thu, 19 May 2005 15:11:23 +0000

I wonder how you say "l33t" in Portuguese???

user — Fri, 27 May 2005 05:01:45 +0000

I just ran across Gamer Br, a Brazillian documentary on videogaming. I haven't had a chance to watch it, yet, but according to the site:

Gamer Br is a Brazilian documentary about the game scene around here. It gives voice to gamers, producers, lanhouse owners, journalists, psychologists, anthropologists, politicians, government representatives and game enthusiasts about questions as professional gaming, market, 'addiction', piracy, policies of incentive, censorship and the so discussed 'violence' in games.

It sounds pretty cool and is available for download either via Archive.org or from LegalTorrents.com. The only thing you have to risk is your bandwith, so you might as well download it! It is 765 MB and, according to Archive.org, "The video is mainly Portuguese-spoken, with the according subtitles in English; when the interviewee speaks English, the subtitles are in Portuguese." Hopefully, I'll be able to watch it this weekend and give a brief blurb on it soon!

Still ashamed to be a gamer...

user — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:02:50 +0000

Unfortunately, little seems to have changed since I first announced that I was ashamed to be a gamer. While I haven't seen any magazines as gratuitous as those, the spectacle of E3 has brought it's fiar share of shame. Over at Games.Slashdot.org they had a link posted to GameGal.com's column on their 2005 E3 Hall of Shame in which the have pictures of a few of the "Both Babes" they found most offensive (The also have a rundown of their Historic Hall of Shame features "Booth Babes" of years goine by). I'm not so ashamed by having "Booth Babes" pimping the games, as I am by the negative reaction to the article that many of the posters on Slashdot had to the idea that there *might* be something wrong with having "Booth Babes" to sell your product and how hard people try to justify it. It is funny to see shuch a gorup of people that are so quick to judge others as sheep refuse to stip and think that maybe there might be another way to get people interested in your games... ..of course that is only once you get past the lengthy discussion on how much money strippers make...

Gamer Br Mini-review

user — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 18:23:53 +0000

Last weekend, I wrote about a gamer documentary I ran across. I hadn't seen it then, but now that I have seen Gamer Br, I can recommend it to those interested in the Brazilian gaming scene. The film is mostly in Portuguese but there are English subtitles. Mainly covering the computer gaming scene, the film highlights some of the legal issues that gamers are facing as well as talking to some of the gamers. Overall, it is fairly similar to the Modern Day Gamer film and its sequel, but Gamer Br does offer insight into the gaming culture of Brazil and also gets credit for talking to some of the government officials who are responsible for making the policy decisions regarding videogames. If you have the bandwidth, it is certainly worth your time to download the film.

Unclean! Unclean!!!

user — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 16:41:28 +0000

Last night G4 aired the first episode of Video Game Vixens. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. I tried to make it to the first commercial break, I really did. However, it was just too lame for me, the prude that I am... However, the first five or so minutes were more than enough for me. The show is hosted by Hal Sparks. I supposed this is the biggest celebrity that G4 has ever had on a show. To make the show kewl, he is introduced by a DJ. But then again, so is Ellen DeGeneres and while I like Ellen and her show isn't horrible, cool isn't one of the words I would use to describe her. Nor is it one of the words I would use to describe the Video Game Vixens. The "Videogame Vixen Judges" are an "eclectic" group to put it politely. Even though she was sitting in the middle and not on the end the first person they introduced was "WWE Rookie Diva of 2005," Joy Giovanni. It is odd that even though I am a fan of professional wrestling, I didn't recognize her. The second judge was game writer Seanbaby who does a pretty funny column for EGM. The last judge was some guy from MTV's Road Rules. I guess now we know what happens to former reality show participants. Interestingly, even though the show is Video Game Vixens, according to the website, the judges are "Videogame Vixen Judges" which means that rather than take a side in the "videogame" vs. "video game" debate the show just uses both versions of the word. That's on purpose, I'm sure and not the result of shoddy production values. Then they started showing clips of videogame characters and I decided to go and actually play a game. The show did get off to an interesting start, though. They did a sketch of a beauty contest and then Laura Croft, Bloodrayne and some other woman came in and kicked ass. Since they were portrayed by living breathing women, it was kind of interesting. However, I suppose that the fact that the highlight of the show was the opening is faint praise. Lest anyone think I'm judging the whole show on just watching the first 5 or so minutes, I did record it and plan on watching the whole thing sometime this week. If there is something more of merit to Video Game Vixens, I will post a retraction. Commence holding breath...

Leavin' Here!

user — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 23:18:22 +0000

Well, this time tomorrow I'll be on my way to Vancouver for the DiGRA conference. I'm presenting a paper Friday about our perceptions of our body as we play First-Person Shooters. Unfortunately, not only am I on one of the short paper panels, but I also ended up on a panel with 5 people instead of four. That means that I get a whole 10 minutes to talk -- and I thought cutting my paper down to 3000 words for the proceedings was tough! Oh well, still, it will be great to hobnob with other gaming people and to get to put some faces with names.

Back in the USA

user — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 21:16:59 +0000

Well, here I am, finally back home from DiGRA2005. I hate travelling ever so much. As someone who is 6ft 4, 225lbs, I am not made to ride in teh back of a crowded plane! Thankfully it was only two timezones away. Those brave souls from other continents have my sympathy. The conference was grand. I'll post more of my thoughts on specific things in the days to come as I recover from the travel. For someone who grew up in a small town in Indiana, Vancouver was quite an experience. Because I am cheap, I went to Orbitz and booked the cheapest relatively close to the conference hotel I could find and, unfortunately, I booked a hotel in the ghetto and the hotel room was the smallest EVAR. The taxi driver who took me from the airport even told me not to go out after dark. It was really weird that even though my hotel was on the hotel was on the same street as the conference hotel and only 15 blocks away, about 10 of those blocks were full of boarded up buildings, hoemless and crackheads. Then suddenly, after those ten blocks, it was full of skyscrapers, suits and tourists. Citys are odd places. However, I didn't have any problems -- although I find the suits more repugnant than the homeless... The best part of the confernce for me was to finally be able to put some faces with names of my fellow bloggers. I had a good time talking with Lars Konzack, and Cyberzel among lots and lots of other people -- including someone from Indiana University I had never heard from before!!! To finish this post up, here is a round-up (in no particular order) of bloggers who beat me to the punch and already posted about DiGRA (some folks more than once!): Greg Costikyan Robin Hunicke William Huber Cindy Poremba Andrew Stern Greg Lastowka Lars Konzack Cyberzel Jason Rhody Jonas Heide Smith Jesper Juul . And there are lots of pictures as well (including some of me looking really enthusiastic!): Flickr pics Grand Text Auto and shinyspinning

The Last Word on the Last Word on the Ludology/Narratology Debate Debate

user — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 19:17:17 +0000

While I was glad that it was by no means the central issue of DiGRA, the Ludology vs. Narratology debate was still going on. As the title of my blog post attempts to suggest, we have already had more than one paper or presentation that attempted to be the "Last Word" on the debate, which of course signals that despite the best intentions, we haven't reached the last word on narratology vs. ludology yet. As such, I thought it might be good for me, if no one else, to lay out my own journey through games studies and how I got to be where I am today. LIke most people who study videogames, I have played them more or less all my life -- we had a Pong machine when I was a very young kid (actually, I'm fairly certain it was one of a million knock-offs and not an official Pong machine) and I've played games ever since. WHile the first console may be different for other people, I'm sure the majority of us have similar journeys, so I won't bore anyone with that. What I've learned from talking to people at DiGRA, was that out academic journey to games studies is unique for each person, and that is what I'm going to talk about. As an undergrad at Ball State University, I was an English major and a Math minor and while I liked reading the classics and found pleasure in the problem solving of Math, I was a fairly unremarkable student. I was much more interested in genre fiction such as sci-fi, sword and sorcery, and pulps as well as comic books. The point of this is to say that I've read many of the classics, and I've got a better than average math background. I'm no expert on narratology, but I've got a shelf full of Norton anthologies that are gathering dust. In one class, we read White Noise by Don Delillo which was inspired by Bowling Green's Department of Popular Culture. While the book kind of satirized the department, it sounded really fun, so when I realized that I didn't want to be a high school teacher, I applied to that program and got in. At Bowling Green, I spent the first semester kind of trying to keep my head above water while I took the mandatory 6 credit hour theory class that threw me head first into cultural studies stuff. I had originally thought I was going to do my Master's thesis on comic books, but I was a bit dissatisfied with that. I finally figured out that I wanted to write about videogames and began to look around for anything written about them. That's when I ran into the Ludology vs. Narratology thing. At first I was really attracted to Ludology simply because my English background had totally burned me out on narrative. I still often say, only partially in jest, that plot is for losers. I'm all about spectacle. Give me kicking, shooting, lasers or zombies over some deep story any day of the week. So I knew I wasn't a narratologist, so I thought I was a ludologist. Now I'm not so sure. I don't think I'm either... In the Department of Popular Culture, one of the other requirements was a Folklore class. While I found the old -- mostly narrative centered and thinking about origins of folk tales and such -- to be very boring, the more modern incarnations of folklore such as that practiced by Greertz and Turner to be really interesting. That's when I realized that I was really interested in people a lot more than I was in videogames. Here at IU, I'm in the Department of Communication and Culture and there is a Performance and Ethnography component and that has only reinforced my opinion that people is where it is at. Which is why I am not totally satisfied with ludology. Unlike any other medium, videogames are really only complete when the consumer is engaged in them. Film and Books and Movies are technically the same for every person, even if we the consumer always consume them differently, but videogames aren't. So if we don't talk about the player, then how can we be talking about videogames? This is why I am becoming more and more tired of the ludology vs. narratology debate. In doing a quick search through some of the papers in this debate, the word "player" is conspicuously rare. You can talk about stories and game structures all you want, but maybe I'm just crazy, but when I'm playing I'm not worrying about the story. I'm enjoying the experience. While thinking about stories in games and structures of games certainly is important, centering on it to the exclusion of the player seems overly narrow to me. I think the main frustration that I have with this debate is that, like many debates, it tends to act as if these two approaches are the only game in town. Those of us that are advocating other approaches don't seem to have a place in the debate. I'm not a narratologist, and I'm fairly certain I'm not a ludologist. I'm an ethnographer and a student of popular culture and youth culture. Perhaps if we really could get to the last word in the debate then those of us that aren't interested in EITHER option wouldn't have to nod politely whenever it comes up.

Can you define cinematic???

user — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:38:47 +0000

One of my least favorite words is "cinematic" because it seems to mean practically anything -- especially when it comes to videogames. How often have we heard something in a videogame called, "cinematic?" The problem, however, is that it is an undefined term! What does cinematic mean??? Sure, cinematic, at it's simplest level means something "like or of cinema" or "having the qualities of cinema." But no one ever talks about the unique qualities of cinema when they use the term when talking about other mediums. It seems to me that when many people use the term, they aren't even talking about the unique qualities of cinema, but qualities of cinema that may be evident in other mediums. So my question is, does anyone actually define what they mean by "cinematic?" While some of the medium specificity stuff from early film theory is useful, I've not been able to track down anyone who actually defines cinematic. Surely someone out there has bothered to define it, haven't they? If anyone knows of a definition of cinematic, please leave a comment!

Now that we've decided that no one knows what cinematic means...

user — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 03:49:29 +0000

I got a couple interesting comments on my last post about "cinematic" and I've tried read a couple things that might relate, but nothing to change my opinion that cinematic is really a vague and nearly meaningless term. I think that a lot of it has to do with perception. I often read people writing that a game is "just like being in a movie" and I really don't know what that means. I am much more likely to feel like I am actually THERE rather than in a movie. Is that a different way of experiencing the world or is that just a difference of word choice??? Moving on from that issue, I've been thinking about another term that gets thrown around. This time I've been thinking about "medium." I'm not sure that this term actually means anything. Even if it does, is it a useful term? Are videogames a medium??? My thing is that I always like to think of videogames as kinds of games. So are cards a medium? Are board games? I don't think they are. If they aren't, then why are videogames? Is this a useful distinction to make???? Any thoughts? Should we ban "medium" from our thoughts and vocabulary from our hearts and minds????

We Could Be Heroes...

user — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 20:01:27 +0000

I'm probably only the millionth person to make that pun, but oh well... I've been playing City of Heroes lately -- I'm a level 11 technology blaster. Thankfully, it is only a 21 day trial because otherwise I would flunk out of school! I tried Anarchy Online back when they made their basic game free, but I only lasted about an hour before I gave up. I couldn't figure out what to do or where to go -- and since they just made it free, everyone on there was just as clueless as I was! So City of Heroes is my first extended experience with a MMORPG. As a comic book geek, I couldn't resist (check out my eBay auctions! I need rent money!!!), but although I enjoy the game and like the world, there are some interesting aspects. For those that don't know anything about it, basically, you are a superhero of your own making and you get assigned missions and defend the normal citizens. Some of the missions, most in fact, require you to team up with other heroes to successfully complete the mission. I'm sure most of the other MMORPG's do that too, but, at least in the beginning, you don't know anyone playing the game, so you have to ask strangers to team up with you. When you think of it, for computer nerds and comic book geeks, this is kind of odd. The game is basically forcing you to talk to strangers. I don't like to ask people in a store for help! It creates a very odd situation where you are forced to socialize and work together to survive, but at least in my case there is no bonding at all. I've played 3-4 hours a day for a couple weeks and still don't know anyone. So am I just anti-social, or is this a situation where we are learning to work with anyone without having any personal bonds? I won't even get into all the waiting around that goes on... Another interesting aspect, which, again, I'm sure is common to many MMORPG's is that around every corner there are bad guys. In City of Heroes, they are mostly gangs and are usually robbing someone. However, sometimes they are just standing around, but you can attack them any way. That is kind of an odd message: "Regardless of what you happen to be doing, if you are a certain type of person, it is not only ok to attack you, but it is GOOD to do so." Then there are also the citizens. They are totally defenseless. Without you they will be eternal victims. Sure it's a game, but it would be nice if these automatons had some sort of agency. I might be interesting if they combined City of Heroes with the Sims. OK, well, I have over 2000 points in debt that I need to work off! Spoon!

Running into the limitations of technology...

user — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:21:17 +0000

My main computer is out of action, hopefully temporarily. Of course it was working fine and then I decided I would try to dual boot linux. So I got that done, then screwed up one config in linux and it wouldn't boot, so I eneded up trying to reininstall linux, which screwed up the grub bootloader, when ended up in me trying to reinstall windows except it keeps hanging. So no videogames for me for a while. oh well, that gives me time to catch up on my reading. .. except I can't update my endnote bib because the I've got everything backed up on a second harddrive... inside the computer that won't restart! grrrrrr.....

Back and ready to kick some ass!

user — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 04:40:19 +0000

My computer is back in action. Here is the email I sent a collegue:

> SO I got windows to install completely. Guess what I did? Unplugged my > MICROSOFT usb keyboard and plugged in my old Emacines PS/2 keyboard. stupid > > microsoft! > > i haven't plugged the ubs keyboard back in yet to see if it will work now, > but at least i got windows up and running again...

of course my friend, who shall remain nameless since I didn't bother to ask him if I could post his email here, was very sympathetic:

Well, this is what you get for using some exotic, unsupported hardware. I mean, you don't seriously expect Microsoft to know about every single piece of equipment ever produced, do you? I'd laugh my ass off if it wasn't so tragic.

In other news, does anyone know where I can find a copy of the GTA pressconference that Hillary Clinton had? Or the open letter about the Sims that Jack Thompson sent out? Since everyone else has had something to say about the hot coffee, I won't really bother. I've been talking about videogame violence for years and I'm tired of it. I'm taking a break from all the hot Grand Theft Auto, jack thompson, "What about the children?" sex (even if it was consentual and not rape) and crap like that.

lazy days of summer...

user — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 04:05:48 +0000

Not much going on. Doing some reading. I finished up First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. The first part is good. There is some good stuff in the ludology and narratology stuff for people that have no info on it. The second half, however, how you say... sucks... Note to authors: Rather than tell me how cool your art project is, why not just show me your cool art project. Talk about dancing about architecture... Don't get me wrong, the art projects all sound cool, but I didn't enjoy reading about them. On the gaming front, I'm playing Urban Dead. Zombies and gaming? Two great tastes that taste great together!

Jack, Jack, Jack....

user — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 20:28:59 +0000

More missives from Mr. Jack Thompson... I like how he includes the stuff about people threatening him and then proceeds to say that the guy should stop emailing him, "or else. Got it?"

Does the APA know good science if it hit them in the head?

user — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:38:45 +0000

I know I said I was taking a break from videogame violence stuff, but every time I ttry to get out, they pull me back in... It seems that the American Psychological Association is in full press release frenzy. First off, I wonder why they bother. Every year they have their convention which is followed by a bunch of press releases. Is there the thought that this serves the public interest, or is this simply an association trying to hype themselves and prove that there is a reason for their existance? Regardless, like clockwork, they have released a press release about a paper delivered at the conference and resolution about videogame violence. Of course it have been covered by tons of web sites. On Slashdot, there was much discussion about videogame violence. Always currious, this is the post I made:

I took about five minutes and went to the APA's website and found that this great new study isn't based on original research, but, according to the APA's press release is simply a review of the research. So this "news" isn't anything new at all. And, if you bother to read the subtitle of the press release, it says, "Boys Play Games Longer and May Be More Vulnerable to Increases in Aggressive Behavior." Note the use of the word "may."

If you read through the press release, we find that the lit review is presented by "Jessica Nicoll, B.A., and Kevin M. Kieffer, Ph.D., of Saint Leo University." Those in academia know that it is kind of unusual for a prof to collaborate on a paper with an undergrad. Looking at his webpage I didn't see any paper that seem remotely close to violence or media effects stuff. THe press release says they are from St. Leo, so a search of their website finds that on April 21, 2005 Jessica Nicoll gave a paper called "Violence in Video Games: A Review of the Empirical Literature" (page looks like ass in Firefox). That panel was chaired by Dr. Kevin Kieffer. So, unless the paper underwent serious revision between then and when it was given at the APA, this is really Jessica Nicoll's paper.

That's right, this paper that is getting a press release and all sorts of media attention is the work of an undergrad. While it is wrong to judge the quality of the paper without having read it, it seems safe to say that *gasp* just maybe this is being blown out of porportion a little bit...

This post says that she is a graduate student but I didn't find any evidence of that and all indications are that the original April 21, 2005 paper was given when she was an undergrad.

This seems especially true when WebMD quotes Kieffer as saying
"The bottom line is we see three things," Kieffer tells WebMD. One is short-term change toward more aggressive behavior. Two, there are gender differences: Boys play more often and they are more likely to be at risk of behavior changes. And three, some more vulnerable kids are drawn to these games -- kids who are already more violent, and those with low self-esteem."
...none of which sounds all that groundbreaking to me and pretty tame.

Furthermore, this post links to the APA's "Resolution on Violence in Video Games and Interactive Media." If you look at the press release about that resolution you will see that at the bottom is states:
Committee on Violence in Video Games and Interactive Media: Elizabeth Carll, PhD, and Dorothy Singer, EdD co-chairs; Craig Anderson, PhD, Brad Bushman, PhD, Karen Dill, PhD and Lilli Friedland, PhD.
As this post points out, If you look at the resolution's references we see 3 papers authors by Elizabeth Carll, 4 by Dorothy Singer, 6 by Craig Anderson, 5 by Brad Bushman, and 2 by Karen Dill. OF all the people on the committee, Lilli Friedland is the only one that has not listed as a reference for the ill effects of videogames. One more cynical than I might think that these people have an agenda or something... (And this doesn't even mention that they start the resolution stating, "...decades of social science research reveals the strong influence of televised violence on the aggressive behavior of children and youth.." as if were a given fact that too much tv makes you violent.)

Oh well, I suppose I should be thankfull that they didn't bring up the old myth of rape in Grand Theft Auto since there is no rape in GTA...

First day of class...

user — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 03:23:57 +0000

Today was the first day of class here at IU. I'm back to teaching the dreadfully dull public speaking, but only for the semester. At the end of the first day of class, I always go around and have the students say what they know more about than anyone else in this room and, of course, I always say, "I'm Bryan-Mitchell Young and I know more about videogames than anyone else in this room." I always get an interesting response, mainly in the form of people asking me what games I play. Today, however, I said that I do ethnography on videogame players and then asked if anyone knew what ethnography was and in both classes at least one person asked if it had anything to do with videogames. Damn kids. Like it's my job to teach them or something... oh, wait! Since it was the first day of class, it was short and I found myself having more free time on my time than normal. Of course I filled it with playing Urban Dead. Or rather, I spent it checking out if my character was OK. Since you have a limited number of moves a day and build up one move every half hour, I don't want to waste them, but I want to make sure my character hasn't been attacked by any zombies. So we talk about pervasive gamines, but I wonder if this is some sort of pervasive games, but it seems like we the players have made this game pervasive. We check on the safety of our characters, how secure our safehouse it (and no I won't tell you where it is, you damn zombie sympathizer!). Someone set up a wiki where people update intelligence and strategy. We've taken to looking for the websites and messageboards of other players to see their strategy and working with other groups of human survivors. Then I think about the gamers I wrote a paper about last year that played Counter-Strike and Starcraft. They would email each other about gaming. They would plan ahead on when they could play. Is that any less pervasive? What about the time I spent looking online for Euchre strategies? Or for a good walkthrough for Max Payne? I understand that pervasive games are typically about fictional web sites and fictional emails, but are those types of games any less pervasive, any less than the way I am playing Urban Dead? I don't think so.

The Games I Play...

user — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:30:56 +0000

I've been playing Max Payne lately. THe bullet time, while interesting, is kind of pointless. I found it odd and gimmicy. However, it was fun. Over Labor Day weekend, City of Heroes gave a free weekend of play, so I got absolutely nothing done that weekend. I've applied to the SCMS's conference in Vancouver. I don't really want to go, but it seems like everyone in my department thinks it is hot shit, so I want to go just to show them that I'm not just sitting on my ass playing games all day! Luckilly it is at the hotel across the street from the DiGRA conference, so I know exactly where it is if I get accepted!. The main game I'm playing is still Urban Dead. Besides the fact that it is about zombies, they are still adding features to the game, so it is intersting to see a game in progress and how the game changes as new features are added. ...and plus it is about zombies...

I get sent stuff for free!

user — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 05:03:54 +0000

Well, all my time spent watching Kathy Griffin beg for free stuff on her reality show is paying off. I got an email the other day from the developer of Professor Fizzwizzle and a link to download the whole game for free. If it wasn't a good game, I would just ignore it and not mention it. However, Professor Fizzwizzle is pretty darn awesome. It is a pretty straight-forward puzzle game where you control the Prof. who has to push boxes, roll barrels, use magnets, and other devices so that he can get from one teleporter to the other. The settup is that the good Prof made some robots but accidentally turned the switch to evil, so occasionally the evil robots show up to chse around Fizzwizzle while he tries to get through the level. The game is really well made. I'm currently obsessed with the windows version but there are also versions for mac and linux. The "story" doesn't get in the way and, like many of my favorite games, is really just a pretense for the action. The game starts off easy (incredibly so, actually!) and eventually gets pretty darn hard. However, if you get stumped, there is a neat solution feature which actually plays through the level for you but can be stopped at any time so you can take over if you figure it out once the game starts it for you. So go buy Professor Fizzwizzle! ...and maybe that way I'll get more free stuff!!!

So how about that internet/book synergy...

user — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 03:15:05 +0000

Once there was book called First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game and they had a pretty cool idea where people could respond to it online and in the book they put the url's to the website. Ummmm, yeah... ...how's that working out??? If anyone has any idea when the site will be back up, or where the responses can be found give me a shoutout.

Jack Thompson, author

user — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 02:44:29 +0000

Jack Thompson, noted videogame hating, pithy email writing attorney has a book coming out. The title of the book is Out of Harm's Way. The first chapter is available as a pdf and it seems to be an autobiography. Most of the first chapter is devoted to his conversion to Christianity. The odd part, however, is the the first before you get to that, Thompson has written a page and a half about Howard Stern, once saying that, "His new name should be Coward Stern." Then we get three pages about an early encounter he had with Janet Reno (who Thompson once claimed was a closeted lesbian and would be unfit to be elected because someone might try to blackmail her about her sexuality... Except the fact that we know about this alleged incident seems to imply that it would be hard to blackmail her because Thompson already "outed" her...). All in all name calling and offering a very unflattering portrayal of someone don't seem very Christian to me... Regardless, it once again raises an interesting dilemma. I really really want to read this book, but I also really really don't want to give Thompson any of my money. Which will win out, my morbid curiousity or my morality? I guess time will tell once it comes out at the end of the year.

I can't open my browser without hitting a Jack Thompson story

user — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 04:45:06 +0000

Man, everyone has jumped on the Jack Thompson bandwagon, haven't they? I wonder if this is the new All Your Base? Of course there's the whole deal with Penny Arcade. While I like Penny Arcade a lot, I read it every day -- yes I know that they only update 3 days a week, but that's how much I like it! ,, however, you don't mess with Penny Arcade! Hell, I've probably just unleashed a hoard of rabid fanboys by just linking to them! So now, it seems that the people on the Penny Arcade forum have pestered the Florida State Bar Association and now poor old Jack is under investigation... If he gets a letter of reprimand, his response will be something like this: "dear idiot: you initially contacted me. stop, or else. got it?

So I wasn't far off on my guess of what Jack Thompson would say to the Florida Bar Association...

user — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:46:59 +0000

Yesterday, I posted that lots of people from Penny Arcade have been complaining to the Florida Bar about Jack Thompson and I jokingly predicted that he would respond to them in the same way he responds to gamers who contact him: with threats. I never imagined that he really would do such a thing. Well, guess what? He did! In a message posted on gamespot, Jack Thompson addresses the Florida Bar. The message ends:

Now, let me be clear. Any Bar complaint coming from these morons arising out of the above incident is baseless and itself constitutes a violation of a specific federal civil rights statute. If The Bar proceeds with any of these, it does so at its own peril. The Bar paid me once. I am certainly willing for it to pay me again, along with others. Regards, Jack Thompson

Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I can only assume that attempting to intimidate the Bar Association can't be a good career move. The Advanced Media Network has some slightly different quotes, one of which states,

If America's law enforcement officials allow pimple-faced geeks who use death threats to drive people of faith and with values from the public square, this country will not long endure.

I'm not sure why the two sites have slightly different letters from Thompson, unless he sent out two versions. However, it is interesting that he implies that not only are the people who oppose him "pimple-faced geeks" (but if they are pimple-faced, then aren't they teens and therefore not to blame for their actions because of playing so many murder simulators??), but he also implies that they are people without faith or values. Now it goes without saying that Jack Thompson thinks people who play videogames are without values, but now they are without faith? Too bad there isn't some sort of Christian Game Developers Conference, or that Christians can't use Halo to witness to gamers... It is also worth noting that Jack has updated his website, StopKill.com with lots more of his propaganda. I recommend reading it to see where this guy is coming from and the numerous inaccurate statements he makes.

Very Interesting Jack Thompson Video...

user — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:57:47 +0000

I went to yahoo's video search and did a search for "Jack Thomson" and came across a video of good old Jack talking about Janet Reno. The page with embedded video (which starts as soon as you go there) is called, "Jack Thompson Exposes Reno at [IBT] Indianapolis Baptist Temple." There is another page that just has the links to the videos. It is over an hour long, and I only watched part four, but it is quite and insight into how Jack Thompson thinks. In just that part he calls Janet Reno, Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt lesbians, Says that the Clinton administration was a bunch of witches and that if Janet Reno isn't the antichrist, she is close to it. Now, I'm no expert on Janet Reno, and I didn't vote for Clinton (I didn't vote for Bush either, but I did vote!), but those are some extraordinary claims. The videos are hosted on the American Patriot Friends Network website and while there's no evidence that Thompson endorses or ever had anything to do with that site, it is a very interesting site. If you look around, you can find out the "truth" about the World Trade Center and 9/11, AIDS is a manufactured virus, and that the United States is secretly still a British colony... Again, I have no evidence that Jack Thompson has anything to do with this website. However, it is interesting to know that Jack's talk about Janet Reno was given at the Indianapolis Baptist Temple. I'd never heard of the place, so I did a search for Indianapolis Baptist Temple and it seems like the temple has a pretty colorful history of its own.

If you didn't like the Doom movie, then you are no friend of mine!

user — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 04:17:39 +0000

I saw the Doom movie this afternoon and I have to give it seven thumbs up. Lots of shooting and very little plot -- just the way I like it. It was the best movie I've seen today and the best videogame movie ever. The only flaw was that they had Eomer beat the Rock. Yeah, as if! From a scholarly point of view, the most interesting thing about the film was the closing credits. For the unfortunate few who have not yet seen the film yet, during the first part of the end credits they show a FPS-style clip where a gun runs around shooting the credits. What made it so interesting was that the graphics of the clip were of very low quality. It was some sort of psuedo-wireframe animation that almost looked like the Doom 3 game without the textures. I found it very interesting that in order to have the end credits "look like a game" they had to make the graphics look significantly worse than the graphics of the actual game. Presumably, if they had just done some sort of machinima with the Doom 3 engine, it wouldn't have had the "look" they wanted. The graphics of the game seemingly didn't match the conception of what the filmmakers thought a game should look like. Another feature of the film of interest (but of less interest to me since I heard about it going in) was the first-person sequence. It was a neat gimmic, but I kept wondering of the logic of it. Why were we seeing things form his point of view? Why did we stop seeing things from that perspective? There also seemed to be a couple times when there seemed to be cuts in the shot, so that it wasn't all in one take, which distracted from the gimmic for me. Anyway, the film is plain mindless fun. You do like things that are fun, don't you?

That Damned Biased Mainstream Media!!!

user — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 17:06:22 +0000

I guess those who complain about how biased the media is might have a point. The big news in videogames is, of course, the Jack Thompson Grand Theft Auto is a Murder Simulator, Devin Moore Video Game Violence Made Me Do It Case of Strickland vs. Sony. I've already covered 60 Minutes's horrible story about the case. In that story, I noted that Ed Bradley hadn't even bothered to put Thompson's name into google to find out about Thompson's "colorful" history. Now, we have an even more egregious example of the portrayal of videogames in media. Game Politics has been doing a great job of covering the case and they link to Tuscaloosa News who has two articles covering the case, "Attorney is subject in 'video game' case" and "Lawyer pushes to have standing in video game lawsuit" (stupid registration required, unless you head over to BugMeNot). The second story also links to a short videoclip of a local televison channel's coverage, which they call, "Lawsuit Against Video Game Makers Continuing In Fayette." All of these stories are mainly concerned with what is currently going on in the lawsuit, which is a challenge over Thompson's ability to try the case. He is a member of the Florida Bar, and since the trial is taking place in Alabama, he has to get special permission to try the case there. So because of his numerous inflammatory press releases and hijinx with Penny Arcade, the defense is trying to get him removed from his case. The story has been picked up by the Associated Press and is called, "Judge Asked to Dismiss Video Game Civil Suit and is said to be based on "information from: The Tuscaloosa News." The funny thing is, nowhere in the AP story is it mentioned that the case is currently centered on Thompson himself. Oddly, the AP story does include an anti-videogame quote from Thompson. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. The AP edits down stories all the time. In this case, however, the AP has completely changed the message of the story, distorting it so that they are only concerned with the dismissal of the case, and not the question of Thompson, himself. Someone said, "No, we don't care that this guy is being accused of being sensationalist and unfit to be involved in this case, we just want to get a quote:

"These Grand Theft Auto games are unique," lawyer Jack Thompson of Miami argued on behalf of the victims' families. "They are murder simulators. The only thought they convey is how to murder people and how to enjoy killing."

So now I ask you, if videogames can't even be fairly represented in a story that was originally about how a guy is sensationalistically misrepresenting videogames, then what hope is there?

Fun and games with ads?

user — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 02:25:11 +0000

After talking about the biased coverage of the Strickland vs. Sony case, and Jack Thompson's role in it, I noticed the ads that Google had put at the top of that post. Oddly enough, they were about class action law suits, and Vioxx lawsuits. This caused me to begin thinking of the ways you could play around with the content of a post to see what type of ads would appear on the page. Would that be a game? Or would it be play? I know that there are lots of spam blogs out there that are just about getting Google rank and linking to other spam blogs. I also know that there are allegedly some people out there that have started blogs about asbestos and mesothelioma just because the payoff on ads relating to asbestos and mesothelioma are supposed to be incredibly high. So just by mentioning asbestos or mentioning mesothelioma am I trying to force the ads to display things related to that? Is it cheating to just talk about mesothelioma or asbestos just so those terms show up? I know Google probably has some filters to make sure that people don't just "game" the system so that they get ads that pay the best, so is that Google playing the game as well? What about asking my readers to click on the ads? I've heard of people making lots of money off the ads, but I've had those ads up there for a year and have only made a little over $35. Of course you only get paid when you earn over a hundred dollars. Of course if people were to start clicking on the ads more frequently, if because I were to make a pointless post about asbestos and mesothelioma, would that be cheating? Of course, it could also be that I'm playing more than one game at a time. One with Google, and one with my readers? They could play their own game back, I suppose...

Bill Gates Doom video found!

user — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 16:56:25 +0000

Ever since I read Masters of Doom, I've longed to see the video of BIll Gates inside of Doom, dressed in a black trenchcoat and holding a shotgun. The video was made for a special Microsoft event where they were hyping Windows95 games and was yanked by Microsoft as soon as they saw it. Apparently , they hadn't seen it and were so shocked by the video they never let it see the light of day again. ...untill now! Slashdot has a story, "Bill Gates' Doom Video From 1995," that links to Reel Splatter who has the infamous Bill Gates Doom Video! After all this time, it is kind of tame, but it is still awesome to finally see this.

I'm a Corporate Whore...

user — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 03:24:42 +0000

So if you look down there on the left on the main page, you should see a link to where you can buy good old Jack Thompon's book from Amazon. So click on it and buy from Amazon so I can get rich off of the affilitate fees! Actually, I just think it is really funny to have an ad for his book on a gaming site. Oh, and if I click on my own links then I get the affiliate fee for and basically it is like taking 5% off of whatever ad I put there... ...but it is mostly just for irony... ...mostly...

Could Copy protection on VIdeogames Go the Sony Route???

user — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:53:50 +0000

With all of the media press about Sony CD's installing rootkits on computers, I began to think, what else is being installed when we put disks in our computers? There are always those stupid Interactual players that want to install on dvds. There are reports that those detect things like Alcohol 120%. Already notorious for refusing to run when certain programs are installed are some videogames which use copy protection schemes. When we put a cd or dvd in our computers, we can always hold shift or click no to prevent stupid software from being installed on our computers. However, what are we supposed to do if videogame manufacturers start using root kits? We have to install the videogames, so there isn't any way to know what else they are installing at the same time. There is no reason to beleive that sometime soon, if it hasn't already happened, that some videogame installer will, in fact, install a root kit on our computers. After all, Sony makes computer games too... ALso of note, not content to threaten the Florida State Bar Association, or the judge who took him off the Strickland vs Sony case, now Thompson has taken to threatening Amazon.com. He has even gone so far as to post his own review/rebuttal on Amazon.com. For me, the most disturbing part of Thompson's rebuttal is something that he does quite frequently: mixing his faith with his opinions. He consistently expresses the belief that if you disagree with him and do not think that videogames are violent, then not only are you not a Christian, but you are actively anti-Christian. In his world-view, it seems that the only reason you dislike him is because he is a Christian and if you disagree with him you are anti-Christian. This kind of "you are either with us or against us" mentality is more dangerous than his beliefs on videogames.

I've broken the comments!

user — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:40:04 +0000

I noticed no one had commented for a long time and I found out why. For some reason they are all waiting to be moderated. So, of course, I had over a thousand comments backed up, mostly spam... I plan on upgrading to the latest version of movabletype over the semester break next month, so hopefully that will fix it. Untill then, I'll just have to check once a week or so and delte all the spam by hand. At least the spam isn't appearing on teh site, so I guess that's something to be thankful for! I appologize to those who let a comment and it didn't appear before now!

Roger Ebert Gives Videogames Thumbs Down.

user — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 01:48:40 +0000

Over at Shacknews, there is a post titled, "Ebert on Video Games: They are Inferior" which basically talks about Ebert dissing videogames without even playing them. In his review of the Doom movie, Ebert writes:

The movie has been "inspired by" the famous video game. No, I haven't played it, and I never will...

Wow, nice open mind you have there, Roger. In his Answer Man column, the debate over the relative merits of videogames has continued with readers writing in attempting to defend videogames, and Ebert basically saying that he doesn't know anything about them, but because he doesn't know anything about them, that must mean they suck. The October 30, 2005 Answer Man column begins with this Q and A:

Q. If "Doom" were just another action thriller, then I would have to say you were too generous by giving it one star. The movie frankly deserves zero stars. But is not just a movie. "Doom" was to games what "Rashomon" was to movies. It invented a way of showing something that had never been done before -- what you call the "point-of-view shot looking forward over the barrel of a large weapon." "Doom" the movie is a tribute to this seminal event. This movie isn't about clever camera angles, witty dialogue or subtle directorial touches. "Doom" has no pretensions, aspirations or delusions about what it is about. You aren't supposed to wonder about the origins of mankind as you walk out of the theater. "Doom" the movie is "Doom" the game brought to the screen without messing around too much with the original. "Doom" works as a tribute because it fails so utterly as a movie. There is a reason so many video game-based movies suck: They are fundamentally different forms of representation. Thus by being faithful to the game, the movie pisses off the critic and pleases the gamer. Vikram Keskar, Kirksville, Mo. A. With friends like you, what does "Doom" need with critics? Surveys indeed show that more than half the movie's opening-weekend viewers had played the game. I suppose they got what they were expecting. I am a believer in the value-added concept of filmmaking, in which a movie supplies something that a video game does not. Seen as a moviegoing experience, this was not a good one. There are specialist sites on the Web devoted to video games, and they review movies on their terms. I review them on mine. As long as there is a great movie unseen or a great book unread, I will continue to be unable to find the time to play video games.

Darn those "specialist sites on the Web" and their reviews of movies... The critique of videogames continues in the November 13, 2005 Answer Man column:

Q. I've been a gamer since I was very young, and I haven't been satisfied with most of the movies based on video games, with the exception of the first "Mortal Kombat" and "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." These were successful as films because they did not try to be a tribute to the game, but films in their own right. I have not seen "Doom," but don't plan to, nor do I think that it's fair to say that it pleases all gamers. Some of us appreciate film, too. That said, I was surprised at your denial of video games as a worthwhile use of your time. Are you implying that books and film are better mediums, or just better uses of your time? Films and books have their scabs, as do games, but there are beautiful examples of video games out there -- see "Shadow of the Colossus," "Rez" or the forthcoming "PeaceMaker." Josh Fishburn, Denver A. I believe books and films are better mediums, and better uses of my time. But how can I say that when I admit I am unfamiliar with video games? Because I have recently seen classic films by Fassbinder, Ozu, Herzog, Scorsese and Kurosawa, and have recently read novels by Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, Bellow, Nabokov and Hugo, and if there were video games in the same league, someone somewhere who was familiar with the best work in all three mediums would have made a convincing argument in their defense.

That's good thinkering there Roger. It is nice to know that Roger Ebert is omniscient and knows what everyone everywhere has done... Although in the same column, he defends Dark City, a film I found to be incredibly silly and lame, so what does he know? Not content to let the issue go, the November 27, 2005 Answer Man column contains yet another Q and A:

Q. I was saddened to read that you consider video games an inherently inferior medium to film and literature, despite your admitted lack of familiarity with the great works of the medium. This strikes me as especially perplexing, given how receptive you have been in the past to other oft-maligned media such as comic books and animation. Was not film itself once a new field of art? Did it not also take decades for its academic respectability to be recognized? There are already countless serious studies on game theory and criticism available, including Mark S. Meadows' Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative, Nick Montfort's Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan's First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, and Mark J.P. Wolf's The Medium of the Video Game, to name a few. I hold out hope that you will take the time to broaden your experience with games beyond the trashy, artless "adaptations" that pollute our movie theaters, and let you discover the true wonder of this emerging medium, just as you have so passionately helped me to appreciate the greatness of many wonderful films. Andrew Davis, St. Cloud, Minn. A. Yours is the most civil of countless messages I have received after writing that I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control. I am prepared to believe that video games can be elegant, subtle, sophisticated, challenging and visually wonderful. But I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic.

Well, there we go, "videogames represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultures, civilized and empathetic." Even though the letter writer lists a couple of books I have no love for, Roger ignores them and says that he doesn't know of anyone who has cited a game "worthy" of his high level. You know, I"m not fan of "art" because I've read Bourdieu and hate the smell of elitism in the morning. However, Roger Ebert goes beyond mere Auteur theory and venturing into pure elitism land. Of course, I tend to get feisty when I think people are being elitist. So it isn't his denying the artistry of videogames that I dislike, it is his pure illogical snobbery about it. Of course, this is why I am opposed to people getting into the art thing. Some people just don't get it and no matter how much we try, then never will. Pointing out cinematic games isn't going to do it. As I said in my comment over at shacknews, "art" is just as meaningful a term as "beautiful." We each have our own notions of what is or isn't beautiful and we can argue about that definition without ever coming to a satisfying definition. I hope that gamers will let this go and not go after Ebert. He's never going to change his mind and we don't need someone else taking Thompson's side. Let Roger read his literature and watch his cinema. A friend of the devil may be a friend of mine, but someone who doesn't like Doom is no friend of mine.

I should be writing a paper, not blogging!

user — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 04:34:13 +0000

So I should totally be writing a paper right now, but I'm taking the night off. I have to write about 20 pages, do some heavy revision on one paper, and probably interview someone for that paper before Monday. So of course, I'm taking the night off. I'm ever so tired! Writing a paper about legal systems that influence gaming on campus. Hope is that it will be a dissertation chapter. Also writing a paper about videogame commercials. Back in the Atari games they used to have tons of people in the commercials playing the games. Now, if they are featuring the latest FPS or whatever, they rarely have the players. In the Atari days they didn't show the games very much. Now, the game itself is nearly all they show. Watching some old commercials I notice that in some they even show people actually plugging the console in so that people would know that it took electricity. Regarding Roger Ebert, it is nice to see that Mia Consalvo has my back. It's glad to know that I'm not the only one who isn't interested in videogames as art! In all these conversations people mention Myst as an art game. Are there really that many hardcore gamers that would rather play Myst again than Doom? Don't get me wrong, I like Myst a lot back in the day. I bought Riven as soon as it came out. However, since they came out, I haven't had the urge to play them again. Not even once! Last night IU had a preview of Grandma's Boy. It is a film about a 36 year old videogame tester who gets evicted and has to move in with his grandmother and her friends. It's produced by Adam Sandler's production company and so, even though he doesn't appear in it, it could easily be one of his early films. As I said in an email to one of my friends, it was the best movie about a videogame tester I've ever seen. It is also, coincidentally, the only film about a videogame tester I've seen. If it wasn't about videogames, I wouldn't have bothered seeing it. Basically, there's some There's Something About Mary-style humor about bodily fluids, some pot jokes, some intergenerational partying, a couple predictable hook-ups, a bad guy who tries to do something bad to the hero, and a grandma who saves the day. I wrote a haiku about it:

Office Space was good I also liked Golden Girls This is both of them.

There are some good jokes. There is also some objectification of women which I found oddly out of place. I give it only 4 thumbs up. (Remember I gave Doom 7 thumbs up. And of course my bastardization of what is surely a registered trademark of a certain movie critic adds to my delight!) Finally, it looks like I'm going to be heading off to Vancouver again next year. This time for the SCMS conference in early March. I'm convinced that the only reason I got in is that I'm giving a paper with a sexy title of, "Post-Colonialism in Civilization". Then in April it looks like I'm going to the CSA in Washington D.C. I'm convinced that I only got into that one because of the stellar efforts of the other people on the panel we put together. But I'll be talking about professional wrestling, and not videogames, so I won't be talking about that paper here. But you will respect the verbal artistry of professional wrestling or I'll kick your ass! (Which just so happens to be the title of the paper I'll be presenting at the CSA!) Now it is time for sleep.

Roger Ebert Appeals to Authority...

user — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 15:41:30 +0000

Since the last time Roger Ebert told us we were wasting our time playing videogames, his website has posted a couple pages of letters from gamers. Most of them tend to fall in the "but game X has a lot of text and cut scenes!" Well, Ebert's Answer Man column appeared this morning with people still playing the same game and Ebert still using the same logic:

Q. Thank you for jump-starting a discussion about the relative artistic and critical merit of video games as compared to film and books. I do take issue when you argue that video games can never have the merit of a great film or novel. You say: "There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control." Where you see a flaw, I see promise. Arguing that games are inherently inferior because books and movies are better at telling stories and leading us through an author-driven experience is begging the question. It's like saying that photography is better than painting because photos make more accurate visual records. The invention of photography sparked a crisis in the world of painting: "Why should we paint if pictures can do it better?" But then painters figured out that there were lots of other things that they could do, that cameras can't. Now we see an enormous explosion of creativity in the world of painting. And another different explosion in the world of photography. We agree that games are inherently different from films and books. I believe they are at their worst when they try to mimic films and books, and at their best when they exploit this difference to create experiences that films, books, and all the other art forms cannot. No one criticizes sculpture for failing to tell a story as well as a good movie. Many people would agree with you that there aren't yet any games that rival the best films or books that you care to list. Game makers are only just beginning to understand that games are not films/books with action sequences. I think that you'll see that the more we work that out, the more we will find ways of creating meaningful artistic works that are unlike anything anyone's seen before. Tim Maly, designer, Capybara Games, Toronto A. If or when that happens, I hope I will approach it with an open mind. This debate has taken on a life of its own. In countless e-mails and on a dozen message boards, I've found that most of the professionals involved in video games are intelligent and thoughtful people like yourself. A large number of the video game players, alas, tell me "you suck" or inform me that I am too old. At 63, I prefer such synonyms as "wise" and "experienced." Today I received a message from Professor David Bordwell (retired) of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who is generally thought of as the leading scholarly writer on film; the textbooks he has written by himself and with Kristin Thompson are used in a majority of the world's film classrooms. What he said was intriguing on a practical level: "The last dissertation I'm directing is on video games as they compare to film. The guy is bright, so we let him do it. But he brought his games and game platform to my house to give me some experience on this medium. I lasted through 15 minutes of 'Simpson's Road Rage,' largely because my coordination is so poor. Even if I got good on the controls, what keeps me away is the level of commitment. The idea of spending hours at this boggles my mind. "My student told me that the most sophisticated games require up to 100 hours to master. In 100 hours we can watch two Bollywood films or 50-plus Hollywood/ foreign features or 80 B-films or 750 Warner Bros. cartoons. Depending on how fast you read, in the same interval you can probably finish reading 20-30 books. Not to mention 25-35 operas or 100-120 symphonies. And that's just for one game! On the basis of my very limited experience, and given my tastes (a big part of the issue here), the problem with video games is that they're too much like life -- too much commitment for thin and often frustrating results."

So now we are down to quoting from someone who has spent their live devoted to studying film to say that film is better than videogames. Wow, a retired films scholar saying film is better than another medium, who saw that coming? Maybe I should ask the pope which religion is best? Moreover, he gets advice from Bordwell? While I'm sure that Bordwell has an open mind, it is just that.... zzzzzzz. Oh I'm sorry, I dozed off. Funny how that happens whenever I start thinking about Bordwell... OK, ok, that might be a bit harsh and a cheap joke (but not too far from the truth...) But really, how much weight are we supposed to put behind the opinion of one films scholar. If one film scholar is that important, I can go call up Jim Naremore and get some quotes form him. I don't' think I need to since when I took a class form him I wrote about videogames and we talked for about half an hour about them and he seemed really interested in them. Not once did he tell me how foolish I was for taking all this time playing games when I could be reading Dickens.... Of course the whole "it takes a lot of time to get into videogames" is total hogwash. Recently, IU had a Godard film festival (crappy flash and sound a tthat link) that was put on by our department and I went to an hour long talk. Wow, obviously I haven't spent enough time studying film to understand that crap. They showed some clips and if I had to sit through an entire Godard film I think I would spoon my eyes out. Clearly there is some sort of literacy there that takes hours and hours to learn. I find it ironic for Bordwell to say he doesn't have time to play a videogame when he presumably has time to sit through things like I saw at that colloquiuum... All I really have to say is that if we are going to start appealing to famous scholars to defend our taste, then people need to go read what should be the starting point on taste: Bourdieu's book, Distinction. Appealing to elitists by claiming that your favorite thing has similarities to their favorite elite medium ain't going to cut it. Elitists like elitism. Nothing we downtrodden masses have to say is going to change their minds. Moreover, claiming that *someday* *maybe* videogames will be as film-like as film or that we will have our own Shakespeare, is just lame. When are films going to be as exhilarating as videogames? When will film produce their John Carmack? I mean, really, all these film guys do is pick up a camera and pull the trigger. Carmack reinvents the equipment we use to make a videogame every single time he makes a game. Let me know why a filmmaker develops his or her own camera, lighting, actors, physics, and lets the viewer star in it. Then film might be as inherently good as videogames....

Henry Jenkins posts eight myths about video games a year ago and people finally pick up on it...

user — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 04:17:04 +0000

So the whole game blogging world is all a-buzz with Henry Jenkin's . It was on Attack of the Show, digg (where it was even a dupe there), and slashdot not to mention billions of other places... I finally got around to looking at the link and i swore I had read it before. Head over to archive.org and welcome to 2004... Maybe there is something to this whole fact checking stuff... Speaking of old things, some long time readers may remember Arthur Asa Berger's Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon and my lukewarm review of it. I was doing some research on early videogame advertising in the LA Times and guess what I should run across? A 1982 article by Berger called, "Pac-Man -- Auto-Erotic Plaything?" I'm not sure what to make of it, if it is supposed to be funny or if it is serious. It does a vaguely Freudian take on videogames and contains such intersting sentences as: "This is, perhaps, an extreme statement, but the dynamics in videogames and masturbating are very similar" and "It has take something like 4 billion years for us to evolve from a simple sea creature to Pac-Man. Sometimes I wonder what evolution is all about." Just plain weird...

I say videogame, you say video game. what's the difference?

user — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 15:15:05 +0000

Over at Buzzcut, there is a post titled, "Videogames: Closing the Annoying Gap" which argues that "videogame" is preferable to "video game." I couldn't agree more. I've been thinking about this for a while and I just haven't gotten around to posting about it. It is quite annoying to always have to search for both terms. It is also equally annoying to do a Google search for "videogame" and see "Did you mean: video game" but search for "video game" and not be asked if I meant "videogame." (Of course there is also the term "computer game" which also gets used from time to time) I think I prefer one word over two simply because it emphasizes the inseparability of the video from the game. I would actually prefer some sort of gamevideo term, but that isn't a word in english. I also think using "video game" sort of makes it two separate things and that they aren't a real synthesis of both. The author of the buzzcut article argues that the difference is primarily geographic:

In the U.S., the habit it to write video games, as two words. In Europe, I usually see videogames.

I'm not sure I agree. I think the difference is deeper than that. Take a look at these search results on Google Scholar: "videogame" and "video game." See a pattern in the results? Most of the search results for "videogame" are people who are actually researching videogames. On the other hand, however, most of the search results for "video game" are people who are really researching violence and the effects of videogames. I noticed this a few months ago and the reason I haven't posted on it earlier is that I am not quite sure what to make of it. I haven't taken enough rhetoric courses (and no, there are no media, film, ethnography, or performance pages even though they are supposed to be equal parts of the department. But I digress...) to understand what difference that space really means. I suspect that it has to do with a kind of literacy or even respect for the medium. Those who use "videogame" have a different kind of literacy regarding the medium that those who tend to prefer "video game" do not. (Roger Ebert used "video game" in his review of Doom which started the whole deal with him). Of course I'm not saying that just because you use one term over the other means that you are smarter or more serious about videogames. However, I do think that it is interesting that the vast majority of violence stuff uses the two word phrase while perhaps not the vast majority, but a majority nonetheless, uses the one word phrase. So anyone got any ideas? What is the meaning behind using one word over the other especially when they sound the same? This isn't like "terrorists" versus "freedom fighters" or "invasion of Iraq" or "liberation of Iraq" but I do think that it is a similar kind of thing going on. A rhetoritician! A rhetoritician! My blog for a rhetoritician!

The real reason THompson doesn't like videogames...

user — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 17:43:46 +0000

I just ran across an interview with Jack Thompson that Spong did back in October. In the interview, Thompson states:

No, I am not in any sense a 'gamer'. I've been too busy to do that. If that response is taken to be a criticism of how gamers spend their time, it is because it is intended to be. The "do violent games spawn violence?" debate is one thing people disagree on, even though all the evidence is on my side. But I'm not sure how any human being with a life and a conscience can justify spending any considerable time playing games in what amounts to useless mental masturbation that helps absolutely no-one. Seriously, my generation had left still the residue of the notion that your life (the substance of which is time) doing something for others. How does playing GTA 20 hours a week help anyone other than Take-Two CEO and sociopath Paul Eibeler? Games are largely a waste of time, in other words. People need to be 'stewards' of their time - again, a concept (stewardship) that is largely foreign to the gaming community and to the younger generations generally.

Funny how this is very similar to Roger Ebert's dismissal of videogames. Perhaps we should stop spending our time trying to get people to think that videogames are art and just trying to get some respect for them first. Without respect, how can we convince anyone that they are art in the first place???

Game inspired by a tv show is released, so of course people write about how horrible videogames are...

user — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 16:57:29 +0000

Associated Press reporter Nathaniel Hernandez has written an article about Blitz: The League. It has gotten picked up by lots of papers. The version in the Chicago Sun-Times seems to be the most complete. Here's the first paragraph of that version of the article:

In a gritty new video game about a fictional football league, players cripple their opponents, gamble and use performance-enhancing supplements.

The article goes on to make some comparisons between the game and some current accusations brought against some players. The article isn't too bad, but it still mentions Mortal Kombat since that was known back in the day as a very controversial game. The irony is, of course, that while the Blitz franchise has been around a long time, this version of "controversial" and "gritty" game was not originally going to be called, Blitz: The League, but Blitz: Playmakers, after the controversial ESPN show, Playmakers (warning: web site plays a stupid sound clip). Blitz was going to be called that, because one of the writers for the tv show worked on the game. So this controversial game is really an unofficial adaptation of a controversial tv show. Funny how the article spent all this time talking about the various and sundry aspects of the game and didn't mention that...

Busy Busy Busy

user — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:52:00 +0000

Can't blog now... Too busy playing Bio Menace...

Re-Examining The Half-Life Story: A First Person-Shooter With A Good Plot?

user — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 04:41:10 +0000

The essay I got published in the Italian-language collection, Doom: The First Person Reader has been posted online in english at the Videoludica website. It's called, "Re-Examining The Half-Life Story: A First Person-Shooter With A Good Plot?". I wrote it more than two years ago, so if I were to re-read it, I am sure I will be horribly embaraced by it. Therefore, I don't think I'll be re-reading it! Since it was originally published in Italian, and I don't read or speak Italian, I figured it would be a good place for a first publication. Chances are any potential job search committee here in the USA wouldn't be able to read Italian either, so I could claim it was a brilliant article. On the off chance someone who might hire me actually could read Italian, I could just protest that the subtlties of my argument were lost in translation. It was a perfect plan! Of course I didn't imagine that it would get posted online in English! Now my work has to stand on its own merits! Curses! I will note that as far as I am able to tell, my essay is the only one that has been published on the site. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Either they started with the best essay or the worst. As to which it is, as all the math textbooks in college would say when they gave an example too tedious or too complicated to solve, "I leave that as an exercise for the reader..."

When it comes to Uwe Boll, you snooze, you loose...

user — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 02:57:15 +0000

Bloodrayne the movie opened last weekend. I didn't get around to seeing it, but after hearing about the horrible reviews, I was looking forward to seeing the trainwreck this weekend. But I guess I wasn't fast enough. The movie stinks so bad that the theaters in town aren't showing it any more! Bastards! I could go see Grandma's Boy, but I've already seen it. I wouldn't go see it again. If you haven't seen it yet, it might be worth a matine, but I certainly wouldn't bother paying full price for it.

Is It Just Me????

user — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 01:23:52 +0000

So once again, people are talking about videogame journalism and how horrible it is. Reading these posts, however, it seems that people have very very different ideas of what "good" is. I know, I know, saying that taste is subjective is a pretty crazy idea! I'm not saying I'm some bastion of good taste. I liked the Doom movie after all... Here was my comment on Slashdot:

Most of the comments here talk about horrible reviews, but is reviewing really journalism? Is Roger Ebert a journalist? Not to degrade reviewers. But do people really 100% trust one videogame review? While I like reading reviews, I read videogame reviews the same way I read film reviews: with a grain of salt. Maybe it is because of my research interests, but I'm a lot more interested in the non-review journalism such as articles that talk about trends in gaming or gaming culture. That is more of what I think of when I think about journalism instead of reviews.

What is most interesting is that one of the people Robin Hunicke mentioned as, "look[ing] beyond muzzle flashes, explosions and crisp sound" is also the same person that wrote what Something Awful called

...the most pretentious review ever written about anything.... You could write a gushing review of "Time Code" as a concrete poem shaped like a moebius strip and you would still be a galaxy away from Kieron's review of Darwinia.

Then there's everyone's favorite Escapist Magazine. Am I the only one that couldn't look bast the horrible pretentious layout? It may well be the best thing ever written about videogames, but I wouldn't know because I've never been able to read a single article because-- call me crazy -- but I hate having to click next every three words. The thing that most frustrates me is that all the complaining about the state of videogame journalism seems to imply that somewhere out there there is some field of journalism that doesn't totally suck. Sure there are the exceptions and there are the rare good articles, but what are these people reading, listening to, or watching that they think that videogame journalism is some exception to the sad state of journalism? Complaining about horrible videogame journalism is like complaining about someone staining the couch cushion when the couch is sitting in the middle of a garbage dump. It may be accurate and a valid complaint, but it is kind of missing the point.

Jack Thompson: lawyer and man of compassion

user — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 19:03:16 +0000

Game Politics has a story of a gamer who committed suicide. Apparently, Jack Thompson, anti-videogame lawyer and compassionate man apparently posted a message so horrible that the comment was deleted and Game Politics has decided to no longer allow anonymous comments. MetalGearSolid.org got a copy of it before it was deleted and posted Jack Thompson's response to the suicide. Here is the message that is attributed to Thompson:

Your "gamer friend" will find peace through the Lord, Jesus Christ, but sadly it's too late for that. There is a void in every heart. You can fill it up with the things of God, or the things not of God. This unfortunate soul chose to fill it up with combat games. The playing of these video games is masturbatory activity, meaning senseless self-stimulation. If you gamers could use a dictionary you would know that that term is not necessarily a sexual one. The real tragedy here extends beyond the life and death of this one fellow. There are literally millions of young people and young adults whose despair is deepend by turning to the things of this world and then finding them meaningless. All of you gamers need to put down the controllers and get a life. The utter inanity of the vast majority of postings here shows how vapid "gaming" really is. You are one of the cheerleaders for this wasting of time and the wasting of lives. Do you feel any remorse for having contributed to this "culture of death?" Of course not. Hey, let's all play MORE games, and ignore all the really productive things to do with our lives. Let's pretend to be shocked that a gamer might descend into deeper depression, as his gamer "buds," knowing he was killing himself, couldn't figure out how to call 911 themselves for him. That would have involved leaving their computers I guess. Sad. Sad for all of you."

One can only hope that this is not really Thompson and that it is just some tasteless joke by a troll. Whomever posted it must have a taste for irony. Suggesting that gamers don't know the definition of a word when the person who posted this obviously doesn't know the definition of what it means to be a good Christian or what it means to be compassionate strikes me as quite ironic.

Indiana Violent Videogame Law is Down, But Not Out

user — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 17:27:26 +0000

While it seems that , for now, Vi Simpson's Videogame Violence Bill is dead in the water, according to the IU newspaper, Simpson hasn't given up hope of getting the bill passed into law. According to the article, Simpson said, "I'm hoping we'll have an opportunity to re-introduce the bills in November, and generate some additional interest in them." Of course, let's not forget that most anti-videogame crusaders are basing their claims on misinformation. For example, take Simpson, who issues a press release about her videogame bill that stated:

“Right now kids can walk into just about any store and get their hands on a video game in which they can shoot police officers, use drugs, steal cars, rape women or even assassinate a president. That’s frightening to say the least,” said Simpson.

It would be frightening -- if it were true. But it isn't. As Game Politics points out:the notorious JFK Reloaded is not - has never been - available in any retail store. So, unless there is some other game about assassinating a president, she is wrong and her bill wouldn't do anything (not to mention that there's no law against a child buying JFK or the Manchurian Candidate, so why should videogames be any different?). Of course, also in that statement, is that other straw man: rape. In this, SImpson isn't alone. Our other good buddy Joe Lieberman also seems to think that Rape Master 3000 is a best seller because Lieberman has also said that there are videogames featuring rape. On that webpage there is a videoclip and about 35 seconds into is, Lieberman says, "It's a crime to sexually abuse or rape a woman. Yet repeatedly in these video games the players are being rewarded for doing exactly that." No. No they aren't. I first said that there are no American videogames that feature rape in them back in January of 2004 -- more than TWO years ago! You would think that such a stupid misconception would die by now. Unless someone is still out there selling Custer's Revenge, then people who say that there are videogames on store shelves that feature rape, they are just plain wrong. I know it, you know it, isn't it time our elected officials knew it? Even Grand Theft Auto's Hot Coffee features consensual sex. If you don't want your kids playing games that feature sex, then fine, but don't make up things to make is sound worse than you think they are! So it seems as if we have two options here: Either our elected officials are misinformed and ignorant or they are lying. Isn't either alternative unacceptable?

Kicking it Old School

user — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:59:33 +0000

I got a bit of cash for Christmas, so I hit up ebay for some retro gaming. I am not much of a console gamer and so although I've had a Pong machine, an Atari 2600, 7800, NES, PlayStation and XBox, I've never had a portable system so I got myself a gameboy advance sp and a few games. While I was at it, I went ahead and got an N64. Goldeneye was such a talked about game, and I hadn't ever played it, so I've wanted to get it for a long time. Well, now I've finally got it -- just when I've got grading to do!!!! Noooooo!!!!!

Videogame clothing

user — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:02:42 +0000

Now, I'm not one to wear an Atari shirt or something, but i just saw a really cool article of clothing. I don't usually watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Is Extremem Makeover: Body Mutilation Edition even on any more???), but I flipped it on to see the end. Ty Pennington not only actually had a shirt on, but also had a jacket on. The cool part of the jacket was that it was a black raincoat-style material but it had outlines of while circles on it. Then they showed a close-up of Ty. It wasn't a white circle pattern -- it was an Asteroids pattern!!! I totally want one!!!! I haven't been able to find one online, so if anyone sees one you have to leave a message!

I AM the Law!

user — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:59:31 +0000

A couple of months ago I bought a used version of the Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death game for the PC. I know the game didn't get very great reviews but it was dirt cheap. So I tried to install it and no dice. The damn game just would NOT install. Put the disk in and an error comes up. You guessed it: copy protection. Way to keep your customers from playing a game they actually paid for... I even tried things like isobuster and still couldn't get it to work. Of course I would have called tech support -- except that the only tech support phone numbers on the game were numbers in England. The site of the US publisher didn't even have the damn game listed on their website. The UK website didn't have any useful information, either. So I turned to that last resort of the desperate man: piracy. The game is kind of old and it wasn't that popular to begin with and so I couldn't find it on any bittorrent sites. So I searched and searched and finally found it on edonkey. Three days later I finally had an ISO of the game I bought and paid for more than a month ago... So the only way I could play a game that I legally bought was to pirate it. And they say piracy is what costs media companies sales... Anyway, so I finally got to play the game. I thought it was a little better than the reviews led me to believe. It was nice and straightforward shooting. There's an interesting feature where you are supposed to arrest people rather than kill them that I found fun. It was a nice challenge to shoot perps enough to make them drop their weapon but not kill them. Then there were the zombies... I love zombies. I even own the Uwe Boll masterpiece House of the Dead. So I also liked shooting zombies in Dredd vs. Death. Sure, the game is pretty much by the numbers with the standard plot of horrible mastermind behind all the evil and the boss battles, as well as the disembodied voice that tells you where to go. However, I found it charming. The graphics are rather dated. This isn't surprising for a game whose copyright is 2003. There is one thing that the game's maker, Rebellion should be damn proud of. Like their last big game, the original Aliens vs. Predator, this game loads nearly instantly. After playing games like Half-Life 2 which have lengthy loading times, I am amazed at how quickly Dredd vs. Death loads. If Rebellion can do it, why can't the other companies? Since I'm tracing the genealogy of Rebellion's games, in addition to the super quick loading times, there is another trait that is carried over from AvP: the saving. When Aliens vs. Predator first came out for the PC (Rebellion had actually released an Alien vs. Predator game for the Atari Jaguar back in the day) there were no in-level saves or quick saves. If you died, you had to start the level all over again. Like AvP, Dredd vs. Death has not quicksave. AvP had in-level saves and quick saves added in a patch and for the gold version, so I was surprised that Dredd vs. Death didn't. At least it has checkpoints and you can escape out of the game and save it, so it isn't that bad. However, it is interesting to see the traits common to the two games from the same developer. Overall, I'd give it seven thumbs up. If you can find it for 5 dollars, and your system doesn't have a problem with crappy copy protection, or you don't have any problem with pirating it, I would say it was worth it.

TY Pennington's Asteroids Jacket Found!

user — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 01:38:18 +0000

Last week I blogged about this cool Asteroids jacket Ty Pennington was wearing. Well, thanks to my friend, Meredith managed to track down a picture someone posted on Flickr of a guy wearing one on a subway, In the comments, someone found out where to buy the jacket. It is unbelievably expensive. So unless you buy me one, dear reader, I don't think I"ll ever be able to buy it. Won't you help this young man's dreams come true?????

Back from Vancouver... again...

user — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:56:39 +0000

So I got back from presenting at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in Vancouver. I had a pretty good time in Vancouver. However, the conference itself wasn't all that usefull. Suprisingly, there aren't that many people at a conference primarilly about film that are interested in videogames. Although the society changed its name a few years ago from teh Society for Cinema Studies to the current appellation, I think I heard people at teh conference say "SCS" more than "SCMS" by a factor of two to one. Sure, SCS is easier to say, but one can't help but feel marginalized when someone says something to the effect that, "We shouldn't forget television people. They get overlooked to often." If television people get overlooked at SCMS, then one can only imagine what it is like to primarilly interested in a medium other than film or television! However, take heart, because all but one of the graduate students from IU presented papers on topics other than film. The conference is going to be in CHicago next year, so I'll probably go ahead and submit something again. If it was farther away than that, I might not bother. However, the more nonfilm or tv people go, the better. Anyone want to put together a panel for next year? Also, I've added a couple more links to the blogroll on the main page, so be sure to take a look at them. I've got the links set for random since I don't want to be responsible for prioritizing them. However, they are all nice blogs, so check them all out.

Tasty gaming theory readings for you

user — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:19:52 +0000

After quite a long wait my friends over at Reconstruction have posted their special issue on games entitled: The Play's the Thing: Games, Gamers and Gaming Cultures. I've not had a chance to read it yet so you will have to go check it out for yourself. It should be interesting reading.

What I'm playing...

user — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 14:28:20 +0000

I'm getting ready to write a paper about depictions of race -- and in this case distinct species -- in the Aliens vs. Predator videogames, so I'm replaying those. (except for the Jaguar version since I donn't have an Atari Jaguar). I still think the first one is much better than the second one. I also picked up Quake 4. I liked it. It was better than Doom 3. However, as lotsof others have pointed out, it is really linear with lots of locked doors that you have to unlock. Still, I liked it. I got the dvd version of Quake 4 because it was the same price as the regualr version. It came with Quake 2 and the expansion packs for it. I've never played the the expansion packs, so I might install Quake 2 and find one of the source code mods and play through the expansion pack.

Oh snap! PC Gamer just got served!

user — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 17:20:29 +0000

A few months ago the US version of PC Gamer magazine changed their format. Now they have seperated their previews, reviews, and columns into sections based on genre. It's interesting, but it raises questions of whether or not they might be throwing junk in just to make sure they have something to fill out that section that month. Apparently not all of the other gaming magazines are impressed with PC Gamer's new format. In Computer Gaming World, there is a feature called "5, 10, 15" in which they have little summaries from the magazine 5, 10, and 15 years ago. In the April 2006 issue CGW writes:

1996 - We had a wacky idea to break the entire magazine into sections by game genre. It was like a collection of minimagazines, each kicked off by a columnist followed by news, previews, and reviews. It was a bold, original idea with one problem: where to put the games that defy simple categorization? You could just cram them all into one section that runs the gamut. Or trash the idea altogether... just like we did by 1998.

Battlefield 2142 -- Africa is for Europeans???

user — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 03:28:31 +0000

I've never really played the Battlefield games. I've got the original Battlefield 1942 around soemwhere and I played Desert Combat at an IU Lanwar a couple years ago, but that is about it. The new issue of PC Gamer has a cover story about the new Battlefield 2142. It looks fun and all with mechs and stuff. However, I noticed one thing in the article that I found kind of disturbing. The article states:

War will take place over who gets the best of what's left after a new ice age. While most of the fighting will take place in northern Africa (as only a quarter of the Earth's surface is still livable under these dire circumstances, mostly centered around the equator), it's certainly possible that Far East countries might join in the fun in future expansions. The two factions involved are "the American-European Alliance, made up of the American continents and most of Europe," and the "Pan Asian Coalition, a combination of Russia, the Middle East, and India."

So the equator is the only place habitable because of the ice age and the Western countries and the Far Eastern countries are fighting it out over the remaining land. Well, that sounds cool and all but last time I looked at a map the equator ran through South American and Africa. Isn't it odd that there isn't any mention of THE PEOPLE THAT ALREADY LIVE THERE???? One would think that a game set in Africa would feature, you know, Africans. Of course this is just a preview and there is very little actual information out about the game, so who knows, maybe EA will suprise me and there actually might be some people from the place where the game actually takes place. Yeah, right. And maybe hell will freeze over too...

I should have picked an easier line of research!

user — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 01:19:40 +0000

I"m currently in a class on Hollywood masculinity so I'm writing about the Aliens versus Predator games. (OK, not all of them. Unfortunately, I don't have a Jaguar and I'm not really into RTS games.) However, to make my argument about the depictions of the different speicies and masculinity, I think I should rewatch the movies. In this same class there are people wring about a movie they have chosen. Now let me get this right, I have to play two games and an expansion pack AND watch seven movies for the same assignment they only have to watch one movie?!?!? Man, I am a moron!!! I should have been a film person!

I am going to have to start taking one for the team...

user — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:03:52 +0000

First I missed the Bloodrayne movie and now, I've missed my chance to see Stay Alive. The local theater monopoly Kerasotes has started something they call the Five Buck Club which is a deal where you get to see certain movies for the titular price of $5. Basically, it is an attempt to get people to come to movies that have been out a while and so its just a step between first run theaters and the dollar cinemas. However, it is only for films that have been out for a few weeks. Last week Stay Alive was still regualr price, and now, this week its gone! NOooooo!!!!!!!!!! I'm just going to have to start going to crapy movies on opening night if I want to make sure I see them... Can I deduct my tickets as research expenses???

That's some good empowering there boys...

user — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:57:23 +0000

Wonderland has a story about a new website attempting to "empower female gamers." This GirlsofCS seems to be nothing more than a Suicide Girls wannabe. One of the posters on Wonderland found that the site is owned by LANFusion where someone linked to a page on the GirlsofCS site where you can see the kind of "empowering" they are talking about. As I said over at Wonderland:

it doesn't look like anything but yet another nudie site to me. Skinny 18 year old white girls... yawn. I don't see anything within the site itself that even talks about gaming. If this is empowering, I don't want to see what unempowered looks like...

videogame syllabus notes

user — Fri, 05 May 2006 14:02:35 +0000

I working on a syllabus for a course on videogames and I'm messing around with some new tools. I am working on the syllabus using google's online calendar and I"m writing this using writely. I just noticed that writely has a thing to post to blogs, so I figured I would try it out.

syllabus sections

what is a game?
videogame history
videogame theory
what is ethnography?

the problem is where does ethnography fit in within this? It must be taught early so to give the students a chance to get used to the notion. However, to alternate between the two will make the course seem less cohesive. So how to do it?
Perhaps there will be a way to insert a little bit of reading every day. but i don't want to overdo the reading load. So how to do that?

Silent Hill is for yuppies...

user — Sat, 06 May 2006 16:01:00 +0000

I've been busy lately with end of semester stuff. Then the last couple days when I've had more time to post my internet has been down. Using my free time, I took one for the team and went to see Silent Hill. Despite the lukewarm reviews and videogame expert Roger Ebert's review, I have to offer my own thoughts: The Silent Hill movie sucks. It is, however, a fairly accurate recreation of the experience of videogames. Not that the film is in any way like the game. I wouldn't know because I've not played any of the games. However, while watching the movie I found myself lapsing between being interested and terribly bored. Of course, the parts that I found interesting were when all the weird stuff was going on. The parts that I was bored with were when there was lots of talking. That's when I realized why the Silent Hill movie is like a videogame. The dull parts where we learn about the stupid story are the cut scenes while the parts where things actually happen are the game itself. Think about it, while people may talk about the weird and confusing stuff in the storyline of the game, the selling point of the game is really the weird creepy stuff, not the storyline. The same thing applies for the movie. I don't' really care why this weird shit is going on, I just want to see the weird shit! The film is like a videogame in another way as well, but not the actual game it was based on. No, the Silent Hill movie is actually Super Smash Brothers. In SUper Smash Brothers, Nintendo takes all their characters and throws them together into a fighting games. In the Silent Hill movie, the creators took a bunch of elements from other horror movies and threw them together. Call it collage, call it bricolage, I call it Super Smash Brothers. Take one part mom and creepy girl from the Ring, one part stereotypical rural people, one part star of Lord of the Rings, one part Wicker Man, one part Children of the Corn and one part the Village. Stir and bake until golden brown. The most irritating thing for me was, as the title of my post suggests, is that the main couple in the movie are apparently some super rich yuppies complete with all white living room with fancy all white furniture. Great, another film about the plight of the rich and beautiful and how evil and inbred rural people are. Don't even get me started on the fact that the people that made the movie apparently have never set foot outside of a city in the first place... Unfortunately, the creepiest part of the film was not the scary monsters, but the weird objectification of the mom. I can't decide if I'm a prude or a pervert but I found it quite unsettling that this woman who spends the entire film being so motherly (and let's not forget that the mom goes from lying on the floor shaking and screaming for anyone to help her to a little Linda Hamilton who will stop at nothing to save her child...) and yet we have lots of shots of her leaning over to reveal her cleavage and millions of shots of her running toward the camera without wearing a sports bra. To wrap up, another review haiku: I saw Silent Hill I didn't like it too much It was blandtastic. To wrap up this epic length post, our friend Roger Ebert pontificates about videogames lack of merit one again in his April 30, 2006 answerman column:

Q. I was surprised by "Silent Hill" director Christophe Gans' incendiary comments about you in this month's issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, especially considering your positive review of his earlier work, "Brotherhood of the Wolf." Gans phrased his comments to indicate he wanted you to read them. David Seelig, Philadelphia A. In the article, Gans praises video games as a form of art and says "The Legend of Zelda" was "a beautiful, poetic moment for me." Asked about my opinion that video games are not art, he said "F--- him. I will say to this guy that he only has to read the critiques against cinema at the beginning of the 20th century. It was seen as a degenerate version of live stage musicals. And this was a time when visionary directors like Griffith were working. That means that Ebert is wrong. It's simple. Most people who despise a new medium are simply afraid to die, so they express their arrogance and fear like this. He will realize that he is wrong on his deathbed. Human beings are stupid, and we often become a--holes when we get old. Each time a new medium appears, I feel that it's important to respect it, even if it appears primitive or naive at first, simply because some people are finding value in it. If you have one guy in the world who thinks that 'Silent Hill' or 'Zelda' is a beautiful, poetic work, then that game means something." Ebert again. I am willing to agree that a video game could also be a serious work of art. It would become so by avoiding most of the things that make it a game, such as scoring, pointing and shooting, winning and losing, shallow characterizations, and action that is valued above motivation and ethical considerations. Oddly enough, when video games evolve far enough in that direction, they will not only be an art form, they will be the cinema. A tip on the early cinema: No wonder it was seen as "a degenerate version of live stage musicals," since the talkies hadn't been invented yet, and there is nothing more degenerate than a musical without sound. Your comments on age and the fear of death are thought-provoking. You know, Christophe, the older I get, the more prudent I become in how I spend my time. As David Bordwell has pointed out, it can take at least 100 hours to complete a video game. Do you really feel you have mastered the mature arts to such an extent that you have that kind of time to burn on a medium you think is primitive and naive? On my deathbed, I doubt that I will spend any time realizing that I was wrong about video games. Your theory reminds me of my friend Gene Siskel, who observed that nobody on his deathbed ever thinks: "I'm glad I always flew tourist."

So the moral of the story is be an elitist asshole. Well, at least not everyone in the mainstream media is a hypocrite... So his justification for not giving videogames a fair chance is that he's old??? That's just ponderous man,

Videogame syllabus update

user — Wed, 10 May 2006 14:38:40 +0000

I've decided that the answer to my quandry over how to set up my videogame syllabus is to begin with a couple days of ethnography stuff. I'm setting up the class is that each Friday will be a gaming day and that they will keep journals of their experiences and observations, therefore, it seems logical that they get some info on how to take good notes and what to think about before we actually start playing the games. I would share the calendar, but there doesn't seem to be any way to just show it to people without making them sign into google's calendar or use an rss reader. If anyone already does those or knows an easier way to let people see a google calendar, leave a message.

Ashamed to be a gamer, but not ashamed of all my fellow gamers...

user — Thu, 11 May 2006 23:10:58 +0000

While I am still ashamed to be a gamer, I am happy to report that I'm not ashamed of my fellow gamers. Yesterday, the first Sin episode was released. I'm not done with it yet, but the first scene causes quite an impression. Apparently, the programmers at Ritual and/or Valve have spent too much time playing games like Dead or Alive because the first thing you see is the Elexis Sinclaire character bending over you with her breasts sloshing around as if they were water in a glass that is being violently shaken. I mean,not only do breasts not move like that anyway, but look at her, she obviously has a bra on, so there is really no reason for them to move around like that. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who found that very odd. In the comments over at Bluesnews, at least two people had already posted about it. Now I don't feel like the lone voice or reason or the crazy man standing on the street corner yelling at people as they go by. On the downside, however, in writing this post I did a search for "boob physics" and found that not only were the creepy boobs available in Half-Life 2, but I also found one of the most disturbing videos ever. It isn't pornographic or anything, but manages to simultaneously objectify a bunch of polygons, as well as ignore the effects of the violent actions performed in order to demonstrate that objectification. creepy. Call me crazy but I like my sexiness and literal violence as separate as possible...

Alone in the Dark is Worse Than Silent Hill

user — Wed, 17 May 2006 03:48:04 +0000

Whle I said that I didn't like Silent Hill, I have to join everyone else and say that Alone in the Dark is horrible. And not in a good way. A couple months ago I was at the video store and saw Alone in the Dark sitting on the shelf and decided to rent it without looking at the back of the box. I get it home and pop it in and it turns out that it isn't Uwe Boll's film, but rather 1982's Alone in the Dark. Let me tell you, the 82 film with the same title is a million times better than the 2005 version. As I'm writing this I'm listening to Boll's commentary and he keeps saying things that make me want to slap him. First of all, he keeps explaining all the characters' motivations. Call me crazy, but perhaps it would have been better to, you know, actually have that in the film or something. Second, he keeps stating what is going on. "And then he goes over to her and then talk..." I suppose that blind people appreciate that, but the rest of us are watching the film, Uwe. We don't need you to describe it for us. Third, he keeps bragging about all the product placements he got for the films. He has no shame! Fourth, he actually admitted that he gets to make movies because of German tax shelters. (OK, that's actually pretty funny. He comes this close to actually admitting that he's only in it to make money. Too bad for Boll that Germany has changed their tax laws) Fifth, he blames videogame companies and fans for the film's failure. He talks about how he doesn't understand why the owners of Alone in the dark wouldn't release an Alone in the Dark game when the film came out and says that it would have helped the film. He also says that videogame fans are too picky. Sixth, he calls other horror films that have came out recently cootie-cutter and all the same and is mad because he doesn't understand why people didn't go see his super original film. He says it isn't straight horror, or straight action, or whatever. And that's the problem with the film. Not only is it not just a single genre, but it is actually several of them put together. Now I said that Silent Hill was like Super Smash Brothers in that it mixed up elements from a bunch of other films. Well, Alone in the Dark does that too, but where Silent Hill uses the differnt elements like paint and mixes them together to create something that at lest hangs together, Alone in the Dark just smashes them together. The result is less like a painting made up of a bunch of different colors, but more like a kid trying to build something with a bunch of different colored legos. Sure you can put red, blue, green, white, and yellow legos together to make something, but you can still see all the individual elements because they don't go together in any coherent way. THe film throws todether pseudo-archeological adventure with zombies, with one random fight scene whose setting is an ice factory straight out of Bruce Lee's Fists of Fury (yes, it even takes place in a random Chinatown location for some reason!), with Starship Troopers complete with soldiers in black outfits and helmets and House of the Dead's Ona Grauer with redish hair that makes her look like Dina Meyer of Starship Troopers, the end of Resident Evil (or a million other movies, for that matter)and finally fancy light bullets from such films as Blade and Underworld. (Oh crap, he just mentioned Body Snatchers and he said that the people who have these slug-like things in them were puppets!! He has no shame! And he just called the creatures Xenomorphs) It does have a nice 80's era Scorpions-esque euro-hair-metal theme though. It's very European. Anyway, if you are going to see a film called Alone in the Dark, go see the one starring Jack Palance and Martin Landau. It has a great twist towards the end. Alone in the Dark Uwe Boll does not have shame Watch the other one.

David Spade on E3 tonight

user — Thu, 18 May 2006 14:22:22 +0000

They've been advertising it a lot, but soem people who care might not know yet. Just a heads up that tonight, May 18, 2006 David Spade's Showbiz Show will airing a segment on E3. Make sure to set your recording device of choice!

About that Showbizshow clip...

user — Sat, 20 May 2006 21:05:19 +0000

You know that post I made about David Spade's SHowbiz Show covering E3? Well, they didn't. Even though they advertised it in the teaser immediately before the show aired! Never fear, however, the clip is online at Comedy Central's website. You can view the Showbiz SHow's clip of E3 at that link or if you don't want to look at the ads you can watch the clip directly. It isn't all that great, but I can't leave my tens and tens of fans hanging!

How not to teach gaming in the classroom

user — Tue, 30 May 2006 21:46:33 +0000

When talking about gaming, it is generally better to actually let people play the game themselves. Everyone repeat after me: "Watching is not the same as playing." If I ever get to teach my class on videogames, you can bet that the only time in class spent watching someone play a game will be if we are talking about ethnographic observation techniques.

Episodic Content - pros and cons

user — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 23:25:02 +0000

Call me a sucker, or call me hardcore. I've bought both SiN Episodes: Emergence (which I found pretty sinful) and Half-Life 2: Episode One (which doesn't make any sense, does it? If this is episode one of half-life 2, then what was half-life 2?) Half-Life's episodic content was a lot more polished (not Polish) than Sin's. You have to hand it to Valve, their games are allways extremely well thought out. I've played through episode one one on normal and I'm playing through it again with the commentary track. The commentary track really illistrates how much thought they put into it and is a nice feature. The main question, however, is, "Is it worth $20?" The answer? "I'm not sure." On one hand, you have the marketing hype: "Episodic content let's the game makers release games more quickly." While I'm sure that is true, I can't help but be troubled by the other hand, the economic reality: "It let's the game makers suck consumers dry." I'm glad I bought the first episodes of each game. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that crap. However, I don't think I will buy Sin episode 2. I'm not sure about Half-Life 2 Episode 2. The fact of that matter is that this episodic content is right up there with subscription model sofware for ripping off customers. Countless others have done the math: 3 episodes =$60. I don't know when the last time I paid more than $30 for a games! --OK, atually, I do. It was when Half-Life 2 came out... Another aspect of episodic delivery is the fact that customers will expect better and better graphics as time goes one. Sin is talking about 9 episodes or something. I doubt that gamers will be happy if episode 9 visually has the same look as episode 1. This presents some interesting challenges. It will be an odd situation where the first part of a storyline looks worse than the last part. Moreover, there is the fact that gamers will expect a new graphics advances in every episode. So what happens if the company develop two or more advances? Will they withhold one of the upgrades untill the next episode -- risking fans finding out and being further pissed off? There is also the question of continuing the revenue stream. As the comic book world knows, first issues sell better than second issues and every issue after that generally sells less and less. This isn't the case for games. In many cases, the sequel will sell better than the original. However, by removing the one, two, or more year wait between gameplay experiences, Valve is certainly moving into the realm of comic books and other monthly entertainments. So how will they get someone to buy episode four if they didn't buy episode three? With Valve's habit of endlessly repackaging the original Half-Life, I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't offer package deals where you could get several old episodes at a discount -- which makes me want to skip the rest of the episodes so I can get them for cheap. Oh well, only time will tell if these questions get answered or if I cave in and buy episode two when it comes out...

Now I"m seriously getting jealous!

user — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:55:21 +0000

What does a guy have to do to get some press around here? First fellow IU Communication and Culture grad student Konrad Budziszewski gets to teach his class Games, Gamers, and Gaming Cultures this summer, but he also gets written about in an IU Daily News article, "Course examines video game culture" (and called a professor even though he is, like me, still a PhD student!) and has that article picked up by Game Politics and even Gamespy! Now, CMCL instructor Cynthia Duquette Smith gets mentioned in a IU Daily News article, "Professor studies how online games affect gender views." What about me? What about THE Bryan young? Seriously, though, it is great to see friends and colleagues here at IUs Department of Communication and Culture get some attention. Mad props all around!

Chamillionaire is such a poser

user — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:18:52 +0000

So yesterday I got up five or ten minutes before the top of the hour and rather than start watching the end of something, Ihit the music video channels. The first video I ran across was some crappy ballad, so I kept flipping and ran across Chamillionaire's Ridin' video (both links have sound). It was ok. That is untill her to to the lines: "Ride with a new chick, she like "Hold up." // Next to the Playstation controlla // There's a full clip in my pistola; // send a jacker into a coma. However, the video clearly shows the "new chick" holding an Xbox controller. Nice one Chamillionaire. What a poser...

You can lie about your age online? Oh no! What about the children?

user — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:01:50 +0000

Now that we have solved all the other problems of the world, the US government has once again turned to the most pressing issue of the day: videogames. This week "Politicians lash[ed] out at video game industry" and "Lawmakers slam[ed] FTC for video game actions." Most notable were the comments of Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky:

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Illinois Democrat and ranking member of the subcommittee, criticized Wal-Mart for the ease with which consumers under age 17 can buy explicit games on its Web site simply by checking a box certifying they are the proper age. "That age verification is a joke," in an era when 13-year-olds can be issued credit cards and other children have access to their parents' cards, she said.

Yes, finally, an elected official takes on the real issues! If the Internet had been available when I was 17 I know that buying videogames would have been the first thing I would have done. Well, of course as a 17 year old, I would have been more interested in looking at porn, but luckilly, there isn't any of that online or anything... However, if we accept for a minute that Rep. Schakowsky's concerns are valid, her complaint is still horribly misguided. Let's look at her statement again:

"That age verification is a joke," in an era when 13-year-olds can be issued credit cards and other children have access to their parents' cards, she said.

From that quote, it seems clear that Rep. Schakowsky feels that there is something wrong with 13-year-olds having credit cards. So what does she do? Does she attack the credit card companies? No, she attacks the businesses that accept credit cards. Now, I don't really care about credit cards, but look at her own logic. Kids having redit cards is bad, so we're going to attack companies that accept credit cards because the worst thing that kids will do with a credit card is buy a videogame. This just illustrates how sad our government has become. Instead of dealling with real issues, we are going to freak out about people buying videogames online. (insert your own joke about how this is a waste of time since the government is monitoring everything we do and knows everything we are doing anyway...)

FIlms are inherently inferior to videogames!

user — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:05:33 +0000

The title of this post is meant as hyperbole. While there are exceptions where such comparisons are useful, I honestly believe that most comparisons between film and games are pointless. A great number of comparisons are simply people who don't play or understand games saying little more than, "These damn kids today! Why back in my day..." or people who do play games wanting to feel as if their pastime was valid in the eyes of those who don't play games. Personally, when it comes to entertainment, I don't really care what people think about the things I like. I mean, I'm basing my graduate school career on videogames and the last conference paper I presented was titled, "If You Don't Respect the Verbal Artistry of Professional Wrestling, I'll Kick Your Ass!" so it isn't as if I"m banging on the door of the gates of Art with a capital A begging to be let in. However, a post on Shacknews with the title, "Steven Spielberg to Make Us Cry?" got me thinking about just how unfair such comparisons are. The article includes the Spielberg quote, "I think the real indicator [that games have become a storytelling art form] will be when somebody confesses that they cried at level 17. In light of the reposting of this quote and the fairly recent pontificating by Roger Ebert on how much films suck, I thought it might be fun to turn things around and see how well films come out when criticized using videogame standards...

I think that the real indicator that films have become a viceral art form is when someone feels a sense of accomplishment and pride for having finished watching a film. While it is true one may feel a sense of pride for having endured a film that is particularly bad or painful, until films can give viewers a sense of pride not from that enduring, but from the triumphant conclusion of the film, they simply will not be as good as videogames. While films are quire successful in economic term -- although people often claim that videogames are a bigger business than the Hollywood film industry, that only discusses domestic box office sales. When one takes in international box office sales, DVD sales, and revenue from cable and the various licencing deals, Hollywood dwarfs the gaming industry -- films are simply not as viceral or as captivating as videogames. WHile there are films that can cause people to cry, to laugh, to be scared or other emotions, that sense of pride and accomplishment is lacking. Moreover, while there are films that people watch again and again, not even the most well loved film is watched as much or for as long a time as the most loved videogame. Online games from Counter-Strike, to Everquest were first released years ago and although they have both received subsequent upgrades, the core game remains and there are still thousands of people who play them hours a day on an almost daily basis. While devoting the equivalent of a 40+ hour workweek to a game may be a form of addiction, if one were to devote 40+ hours a week to watching the same film, it would surely be a sign of a much much deeper problem than any non-physical addiction such as gaming playing. The fact that these games are online raises another point in which films are simply inferior entertainments to videogames. Such games, whether they are online or played via LAN or with consoles, are inherently social. The same cannot be said of films. While people often go to the theater and watch films in groups of friends or even strangers, in the vast majority of cases, the actual watching is done on an individual basis. ONe may not be alone but, at least in most western contexts, any sustantive communications with other people in the same room are minimal. In multiplayer games, communication is the key to success. These games build the kind of efficient and meaningful communication that films can only dream of. Numerous relationships in these games have resulted in marriage. It is difficult to imagine how two people that have never met before watching a film and had no contact outside of the time the film was being watched could fall in love. Moreover, the fact that there are professional game playing teams indicates that playing these games could easily be said to develop teamwork. Again, I find it hard to imagine how watching films could be said to either require or develop teamwork if watched in the typical fashion. SImilarly, if one could imagine competitive film watching where people were paid simply on the basis of their film watching skills -- and not on how well they could write about having watched films --- then that person has a more creative imagination than I. This is just a brief overview, but from this is should be clear why films are inherently inferior to videogames.

See how easy it is to totally ignore the merits of one medium when comparing it to another? I"m not attempting to say that such comparisons are entirely meritless because of this. I am attempting to say that while it is good to occasionally point out the failings or deficiencies of current videogames, it is not good to focus on those weakness to such an extent that we forget the things that current games are good at and that films are not the final word in entertainment.

Lo Wang meet Tommy Hawk

user — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 03:00:22 +0000

LIke lots of people, I've recently played the Prey demo. Coincidentally, just a couple days before the Prey demo came out, I also started playing Shadow Warrior. While Shadow Warrior came out in the late 90s and Prey hasn't came out yet (although it has quite a long history and was originally conceived around the same time as Shadow Warrior), there are a lot of interesting similarities besides the obvious fact that they were both spearheaded by 3D Realms (although Prey was produced by Human Head, it was 3D Realms that originated the project). While going from the venerable Build Engine to the currently state-of-the-art Doom 3 Engine was quite a jolt, and Prey's portals and gravity-flipping were quite fun, beyond the visuals, the other details haven't changed that much. Shadow Warrior is over-the-top and full of intentionally stereotypical depictions of Asians. To give an indication of the humor included in the game, the main character's name is Lo Wang and like his spiritual predecessor, Duke Nukem, he has lots of witty phrases. On some level it is pretty offensive, and mixes Japanese elements such as ninjas with Chinese elements, but it is so over the top and cartoony it is hard to get worked up about it. I mean it's no Showdown in LIttle Tokyo or anything. Prey stars a Cherokee man by the name of Tommy Hawk, which, not as bad as Lo Wang, is still a lame pun, who gets sucked up into a UFO along with his grandfather and girlfriend (who spends the whole demo screaming "Help me! Help me!" in a way that would make Princess Peach embarrassed. Although the elements in the demo try to play the Cherokee heritage straight and respectfully, they end up with something that has a lot more in common with Shadow Warrior's level of accuracy than it has different from it. Metafuture has already covered it in their article, "Your Guide To The Cherokee People" so the only thing I will add is this: When Tommy dies he goes to his ancestral homeland. Who knew that The US South was a dessert full of buttes?

Samouraïs Movie Review

user — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 03:33:15 +0000

Several months ago I was home at my parent's home and on Showtime Beyond and I caught the end of a weird kung fu movie with some videogame elements. Curious I bought the dvd. Now, after sitting on my pile of films to watch I have finally watched that dvd. That movie is the French produced Samouraïs (i'm trying some fancy and yet shameless Amazon affiliate link thingy here. If you click on there and buy it I"ll get 8¢!). Basically, like most French produced kung fu movies, of which this is the only one I'm aware, it is pretty weird. The reviews are not kind. Basically, there is a demon who was brought to Earth 500 years ago, which gives us a chance for some samurai action -- hense the title -- and then we go to the present day where the demon is going to be reborn into the ancestor of the person that brought the demon to Earth in the first place. That woman happens to be in France where she runs into our generic hero and his highly irritating sidekick. I'm sure that said sidekick will soo bee sued by Dustin Diamond for stealing his Screech character and demeaning it of all self-respect. The videogame part comes in when the generic hero's little brother plays a game based on the demon and takes control of the generic hero so that he can beat the demon. The game looks like original PlayStation-era graphics but, for once, videogames aren't shown as evil or negative. In fact they are the only way that the demon is beaten. Without the videogame content, the film is very forgettable. With it, it is only interesting as a footnote. I give it three thumbs up. And now, my trademarked review haiku: Samouraïs is bad and it made me want to screech poor Dustin Diamond

Again I ask, "What does 'Cinematic' mean???"

user — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 05:51:49 +0000

With Valve's supercargo announcement of Teem Fortress 2 not only still existing but coming out fairly soon, and with the rebirth and release of Prey, it seems that all we need to bring on the End Times is the release of Duke Nukem Forever. One other thing was mentioned along with the Valve announcement that confused me. As is usually, Valve bragged about graphic upgrades for Episode 2, something I've previously speculated about. One of those features was "cinematic physics." So what is so "cinematic" about explosions? People always say such and such is a very cinematic game and I have yet to know what they are talking about except when they are talking about a cut scene or lens flare. Especially since Half-life never breaks from the First-Person I don't know what "cinematic explosions" could mean unless they are just talking about, "over the top." I've discussed my confusion over "cinematic" before and I"m still not clear on what people mean when they say that. THe only thing I've seen is this very interesting article about some of the explicitly cinematic effects in the Source engine which use things such as motion blur, film grain, and color correction. But I don't think that is what people are thinking about when they normally say something is "cinematic" is it? Just like the answer to that eternal question, "Just how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?" the answer to "What does 'Cinematic' mean?" may very well be, "The world may never know."

Duke Nukem to Use PhysX card?

user — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:56:48 +0000

Here's my first ever bit of rumor mongering! It has previously been reported that Duke Nukem Forever is going to use the Meqon physics engine. Well, last year, Meqon was purchased by AGEIA. Now AGEIA is the maker of the PhysX physics accelerator card. So putting 2 and 2 together seems to me to lead to the conclusion that Duke Nukem Forever will use the PhysX card. Of course that all depends on whether or not Duke Nukem ever comes out and if AGEIA is still around when Duke Nukem Forever finally comes out...

I'm starting to get

user — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:01:22 +0000

I'm starting to get worried that something might have happened to Jack Thompson.
First, in Louisiana a judge, refused to permit controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson to file an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in the case over the legality over the anti-violent videogame law Thompson co-authored. We all assumed that Jack would immediately respond with his normal flurry of press released claiming that the videogame industry was so afraid of him that they had to bribe the judge to keep him off the case.
Now, an Indiana teenager has shot at people and killed one person. A teenager kills someone? If anything calls out for Jack's attention it is that. And still nothing!
Maybe he's too busy working on that fancy new website to notice these events. If Jack won't think of the children by sending out inflammatory press releases who will?

I thought everything was on the internets???

user — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:47:04 +0000

The tubes, the tubes, won't someone think of the tubes? Back in 2001-2002 TBS used to show a latenight block of programming from the Burly Bear network that was apparently shown on college campuses. On that late night block there was a lot of crap, but there was also one of the best videogame-related shows I've seen: Dave and Steve's Video Game Explosion. Well, Burly Bear died (apparently it got acquired by National Lampoon) and Dave and Steve was lost to the sands of time. I can't believe that in this era of youtube and google video that I can't find any episodes of this show online somewhere. All I can find is archive.org's cache of the tbs page and two lonely images: How am I supposed to satisy my lame urge to college every videogame related program I can find, if I can't find it? Realistically, however, it does illistrate the difficulties of being interested in studying this kind of ephemera. If you don't record it and keep a copy of it when you see it, it might be gone. Recently, I was able to contact MSNBC and get a copy of the episode of when Henry Jenkins was on Donahue's MSNBC show but in a case like Burly Bear where it has gone out of business, how likely is it that National Lampoon will even know what I'm talking about, let alone be willing to help me? The moral of the story is, RECORD EVERYTHING!!!!

Testing....

user — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:13:27 +0000

I start taking my phd exams tomorrow. So don't count on any updates for a couple weeks. Right now I'm enjoying my last day of freedom by doing nothing productive. woot!

Writing is over. now it is time to get defensive

user — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:34:15 +0000

So after two long weeks of writing my exams, I am finished. I turned the last two in yesterday. Now all that is left is my oral defense next Monday. I've never been through a defense before, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I'm trying not to worry about it because that isn't going to do any good, is it? However, I think since it is called a defense I should be defensive, right? So I plan on saying lots of things like, "Well, that's a stupid question" and "what do you think it means?" With an attitude like that I can't help bud pass, right? Invetween now and then I plan on sitting on my butt a lot and playing games. Oh, and apply to a couple conferences... While writing my exams, I did play one game. After hearing so much about Planescape Torment, I decided to hunt down a copy and try it out. I've certainly got to respect a game so highly regarded that fans have made their own patch for it. I was a D&D nerd for a couple years back in the day (even though I could never really find anyone else who wanted to play), so I've had a fondness for the RPG genre, but last RPG I played was the cutscene-tastic Final Fantasy 7 and 8, and that prety much soured me on the genre for several years. FF7 was a novel experience for me since I'd never played any of the others, but I got half way through 8 and just got bored. The final straw was when I realized that I was really only playing in order to play the card game within the game. The reason why I wanted to play Planescape was that it is quite often one of the games that are brought up when people talk about emotional impact in games. Indeed, the game is quite wordy. In fact fans have taken all the text from the game and made it into a book. However, I have to admit, about half way through the game I realized you could just hit enter and the numbers to go through the dialog and I just started skimming. Maybe it is because I've spent all summer reading around a book a day, but I didn't have much patience for the dialog. Don't get me wrong, I like the game and I fully admit that the story was intersting. However, it was just a little much for me. However, I still wonder, was it the story that was interesting for me or was it the motication for the tasks I had to perform? I know that once a character died before I had gotten around to completing two small missions involving a secret that character had I was irritated that I couldn't complete those missions. I didn't care that the character had died. Similarly, in the dialog trees that were mainly concerned with relationship stuff I would just pick the answers that I thought would give me the best result, not out of some sense of obligation or emotional attachment to the characters. I often wonder what people mean when they say that games have a good story. I've got a paper about the fact that Half-Life had a rather simple plot, but it was well told. Years ago in an interview where I was asking a person what they liked about certain games and the person said that Unreal Tournament had a good story. I wish I would have asked him what he meant by that because certainly Unreal Tournament doesn't have much of a story at all. I think for me the appeal of Planescape ended up being that mission screen and that there were always more things to do and not the story or the emotional impact. I don't doubt for a minute that some people found the story of Plaenscape to be the most interesting thing about the game and found the missions to be simply getting in the way. I wonder, however, are there other people who say they liked the story but might be referring to the missions? Or if there can really be a distinction between the story and the mssions at all? For several years I've been thinking about the importance of the initial premice and the importance of the narrative itself. I suppose I will be thinking about it for several more years untill I get somewhere where I can make some sense of it.

First day of class fall 2006

user — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:25:40 +0000

Tomorrow is the first day of class at i.e. and my fourth year here. More importantly on a personal level, tomorrow is my oral exam. a!!!!

School has returned and so have I

user — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 22:35:02 +0000

So exams are over ...for now. I have to revisit them in January, but it will be the same material, so I'm not terribly concerned. Gaming related, watching the latest trailer for Half-Life 2 Episode 2, I was reminded of my major gripe with Episode 1. In Episode 1, there is an Antlion QUeen (according to wikipedia, it is a technically a guard, but it seems more like the queen of the hive to me). After killing it, that is it. You can't get the antlion scent and use it to turn antlions to your side. According to WIkipedia, getting the scent gland is, "an act which is said cannot be done by humans," but I'm not sure where such information came from. I don't remember that in the game. While playing Episdoe 1 I was totally looking forward to being able to use the antlions! I suppose that this is a place where that carefully crafted system where Alyx makes useful comments could have come in handy. She could have said something like, "too bad we can't get that pheremon sack, isn't it Gordan?" It is intersting how a single line would have prevented me from being disappointed. As it is, it seems as if the possibility that the antlions can be controlled is just ignore within the game world. There were so many areas with antlions it would have been interesting to take control of them. Oh well, perhaps in Episode 2 So what would a line of dialog such as the one I proposed be considered? Is it narrative? Does it add to teh story line? Or is it something else? It seems that such a line might be similar to a situation where when telling a story someone brings up a detail, as an aside, as a way of reasuring the listener(s) that the detail hasn't been forgotten or that it may be brought up later. Do such elements have names, besides foreshadowing or asides? Do they serve the story? Do they serve to placate plisteners/players? Inquiring minds want to know! Inquiring minds like me!

The ratings game...

user — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 23:08:13 +0000

In the April issue of Computer Gaming World, there were no ratings on the reviews. They wrote:

Its April, Fools! As you flip through this issues reviews, you'll notice something. Yes, CGW is playing a cruel April Fools Day joke on impatient consumers everywhere: This months reviews come score free. Was Star Wars Empire at War worth the wait? Is Rainbow Six: Lockdown anything more than a lazy console port? And do you really need to play a game about the Winter Olympics? You'll just have to read the full reviews to find out scores be damned. [....] And if you believe this is crazy, just wait until you see next months all new Reviews section. Page 79

Then, in the May issue, Jeff Green Wrote:

NEW REVIEWS: ZERO STARS? I'm old. How old am I? [....] I'm so old, I remember back when this magazine ran game reviews without any star ratings on them. From our humble beginnings in 1981 until June 1994 (thats 13 years, according to my calculator!) this magazine did not attach numeric scores to reviews. And when we finally started to, in July 1994, it incited an immediate firestorm of protest. You've sold out! readers cried. You've dumbed the magazine down! they sighed. You've made the text irrelevant! they whined. Over time, however, the protests died down (mostly), and the gaming public came to accept scores as a crucial aspect of a game review. Now, a games GameRankings.com average is often the only thing many gamers (and publishers and developers) even care about. So its with much irony that the CGW mailbox now overflows with new protests from readers angry that we removed the scores last month. Why we did that may be a little clearer this month, as we reveal more of our ongoing strategy to reposition and redefine our editorial mission here in 2006. Or maybe it will be even less clear. What do I know? In any case, check out our new Viewpoint section [...] Page 10

Where the reviews used to be, they wrote:

Pardon Our Dust WE JUST BROKE OUT OF THIS STUFFY OLD BOX. THIS month, your trusty Reviews section receives a revisit, complete with the shiny new Viewpoint moniker that tops this page. Name change aside, you should notice four very important changes to CGWs newly refocused opinion section: 1 More in-depth reviews. Reading the same old stuff six weeks after it hits the Internet just doesn't cut it anymore. Now, 1UP.com servers as our jumping-off point for longer, deeper reviews of the games you should be playing. 2 No more scores. Those of you who want your Cliffs Notes still get a verdict box with a short summary of the reviewers opinion but now the text speaks for itself. If you're really desperate, check out our new Reality Check page for a spread of other industry scores and see how they compare with what we say. Page 79

Personally, I didn't really care. One rating doesn't convince me to discourage me from buying a game. However, a funny thing happened as I flipped through the September issue of Computer Gaming World. They have started sneaking rankings back in. In the Rise & Fall: Civilizations At War review Tom Chick starts off by mentioning another review with the phrase, "he says in his 9-out-of-10 review" and then a subsection heading for the review is, "Brother, Can You Spare a 7 Out Of 10?" (92, 93). Similarly, in Greg Kramer's review of City Life, there is a line which states, "Despite its oddities and rough edges, the game’s critical consensus remains positive, with most ratings hovering around 1UP’s strong 8 out of 10" (98). Curious, I went to 1up.com and looked at their review of City Life and who wrote it? Why Greg Kramer! Curious, I looked at 1Up's review of Rise & Fall: Civilizations At War was written by Tom Chick (who gave it a 5 out of 10, so why the heading 7 out of 10??). The oddest review in the issue is Eric Neigher's review of Titan Quest which is basically a discussion of his 1Up review of Titan Quest.. What in the world is going on here? Are they simply pimping for 1Up.com? Or are they regretting eliminating the ratings and attempting to slip them back in? My first assumption was the latter. I assumed they got so much hate mail they were attempting to satisfy people without appearing like they caved into pressure. However, I was curious to see if anyone else had noticed the hijinx occurring and found out that something even more starting was going on with CGW: they were being canceled/turned into a new magazine called: Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. So now, just like Playstation and X-Box have their official magazines, it looks like Windows will have their official magazine which employs much of the staff of Computer Gaming World. It will be interesting to see if they retain the "no ratings" policy or if they use that opportunity to reinstate them. Honestly, however, I can't see a magazine with a name like Games for Windows: The Official Magazine being really popular or lasting too long. Who knows though. It will certainly be interesting to keep an eye on.

One of the most

user — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:08:32 +0000

One of the most common arguments that those who are in favor of making laws restricting the sale of videogames (when not erroneously arguing that in the USA film ratings are governmentally enforced) is that the sale of pornography to minors is illegal, so why shouldn't the sale of certain games be illegal?

Can anyone point me to a refernce on pornography laws in the USA? I've spend about half and hour searching online, Amazon, and the college library card catalog and I have yet to find anything that exaplins exactly what the pornography laws are in the USA. (The main problem is that any search tends to return logs of hits for child porn and internet porn laws. I want to know exactly what the laws about a kid buying Playboy are.) Anyone actually know what the law(s) are?

More on porn laws

user — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:24:48 +0000

Since my last post asking about laws regarding selling pornogrpahy to minors, I've gotten a few comments I thought I would post here. Konrad writes:

In general, the main piece of legislation re: porn is the decision in the Miller vs. California test: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0413_0015_ZO.html Long story short, the main contribution here is the "Miller test," defining whether or not a given form of speech can be categorized as "obscene," and therefore not protected under the First Amendment: "However, the Court acknowledged "the inherent dangers of undertaking to regulate any form of expression," and said that "State statutes designed to regulate obscene materials must be carefully limited." The Court, in an attempt to set such limits devised a set of three criteria which must be met in order for a work to be legitimately subject to state regulation: * the average person, applying contemporary community standards (not national standards, as some prior tests required), must find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; * the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions[1] specifically defined by applicable state law; and * the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. The third condition is also known as the "SLAPS test". The work is considered obscene only if all three conditions, which together constitute the Miller test, are satisfied." (wikipedia) As far as kids buying Playboy (and I guess the proper legal term here is "disseminating pornography to minors," that's handled on a state-to-state basis. It's currently illegal in all 50 states, but the laws are set at the state level, so there's 50 different pieces of legislation dealing with the same thing. To the best of my knowledge, though, they are all based on the Miller test. (As a matter of fact, all the current "violence as porn" efforts in state legislatures all over the country pretty much just want to extend the scope of the Miller test onto graphic violence, thus defining it as a form of obscenity and circumventing counter-arguments based on First Amendement protections...)

Robbie writes:

There seems to be a bit of information on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography#Anti-pornography_movement It provides a summary of legal proceedings and the rationale that co-ordinated the proceedings, and links to to the cases themselves. The basis of the first part of the section on anti-pornography laws being that pornography degrades the "grand idea" of free speech as is pertains to protecting other, more credible media institutions. The page quotes that pornography perhaps shouldn't be protected, as it is a "crass commercial exploitation of sex" - which is pretty ridiculous as an argument, since you could attack any hobby/interest magazine or TV programme with such arguments. Furthermore, it continues to suggest that pronography degrades the moral balance of society, which is perhaps the best argument against pornography, and the one that would most apply to video-game regulation - even though it is merely arguing to keep the status quo, rather than perhaps what may be a very culturally valuable medium in times to come.

grumpy_archmage writes:

Well, here in Arkansas, there is a law prohibiting the salf of "[...], pictures, clothing, or other materials which are immoral, lewd, obscene, indecent, or offensive" with contact of the Prosecuting Attorney being the action taken. (Arkansas Code 2-36-103. Sale of immoral, lewd, etc., items.) As far as pornography, the Arkansas Law states that its a class B misdemeanor to sell porn or show porn movies to minors or to display the bottom 2/3 of a porn dvd. Oddly enough, the law does not apply if 1) the parent, legal guardian, or aunt/uncle/grandparent gives the clerk permission to sell it to the kid, 2) the said family member actually sells it to them, or 3) the said family member gives permission to show or shows themself a porn movie to the kid. Talk about a crazy law... (Arkansas Codes 5-68-501, 502, and 503 Selling or Loaning Pornography to Minors)

Jythie writes:

It usually falls under umbrella 'corruption of a minor' laws. Such laws can be used to prosecute almost anything if you can convince a judge that it is bad enough. Their application is not generally federal. I've actually seen the same law used to take kids away from parents with unpopular religions, nudists, polly folks, kinksters, etc. As for stores selling porn, they tend to be on thin-ice in many areas as it is, so mostly they just don't want to attract irate parrent by simply not allowing such sales. Obsentiy laws can be applied anywhere a complainer feels they can cause trouble.

Finally, jabrwock writes:

I usually go to a state's website and look up "obscenity" & "nudity" in their statutes. It usually returns the applicable laws such as definitions, fines, etc. For an overall definition as approved by the Supreme Court, see the Miller test. It's left up to each state to determine what "sexual conduct" actually means, and what penalties to assign. For example, in Washinton State, I went to http://www1.leg.wa.gov/legislature/, clicked on "search" and typed "obscene" & "nudity" into the search box, and asked it to search in the various sections. It returned all the different laws that apply to obscenity, covering sexual conduct, sexually explicit, etc.

Stupid Game Design Choices...

user — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:53:04 +0000

I just finished playing Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and I've started playing F.E.A.R. In each game I've encountered some very frustrating elements. While I enjoyed Call of Cthulhu, as more of an adventure game than a FPS, the most frustrating part is that the game designers had an irritating habit of placing save points -- and let's not forget that there are save points and not quick saves in the first place -- just before crappy cut scenes. Very very irritating to have to watch the same damn clip a dozen times in a row while trying to get past the portion of the game. FEAR, on the other hand, was irritating before I even started playing it. Stupid copy protection meant the damn game wouldn't install in the first place. I couldn't even copy the disk to the hard drive without resulting in an error. I eventually got it copied over by booting into linux and just telling it to retry copying the files over and over. I knew I should have just downloaded the torrent. That would have been a lot easier than having to go through this. It seems that it might occur to someone that pissing off your customers wasn't a very smart think to do...

Dave and Steve ARE online!

user — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:29:04 +0000

Back at the end of July, I berated the internets because Dave and Steve's Video Game Explosion wasn't online. Well, I'm happy to say that I take it all back as Steve, of Dave and Steve's Video Game Explosion, has put up several episodes. Now everything is indeed on the tubes.

Jack Thompson strikes again...

user — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:37:20 +0000

On Saturday, Jack Thompson, house husband, announced:

On Monday, September 25, Thompson will journey to another state and announce, with his co-counsel, the filing of what will likely prove to be hugely significant wrongful death action against Sony and Take-Two. The angel is in the details, as this battle in the "culture war" may indeed eclipse even what is going on in Alabama.

So today the case was officially announced and, true to his word, the "angel is in the details." The case is a wrongful death lawsuit Cody Posey and the makers of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City." For those who don't recall the case, Cody Posey killed his father, step-mother and step-sister when he was 14. The part where the details come in is that during a police interview Posey claimed his father forced him to have sex with his step-mother and during the trial testified that his father has emotionally and physically abused him for years. So Thompson is involving himself in a case where he is saying that it was videogames and not years of abuse that drove Posey to kill his family. Nice one Jack. Way to pick your battles. The article goes on to state that the lawsuit is being filed by the members of the father's family. Hunting around on the CourtTV site there is some evidence that there is a rift between the family of the Cody's father and his mother in which the father's family denies the abuse allegations and wanted Cody punished to the maximum extent of the law while the mother's family wanted a more lenient sentence. Since the court handed down a rather lenient sentence, my opinion is that Thompson has simply been caught up in a bitter battle between two groups over whether or not Cody Posey's father really was abusive. As this lawsuit is brought against both Cody Posey and the makers of GTA, there is little doubt that the mother's side of the family will strongly emphasize the abuse angle. I'm betting that Jack is getting into much more than he bargained for here. Of course the cynical part of me predicts that when the mother's family brings up the abuse charges and makes the father out to be horrible people, Jack will turn his back on the case claiming that he didn't know about the abuse allegations thereby avoiding another loss in court...

So are there any good pc games coming out before Christmas?

user — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:31:09 +0000

I just finished playing FEAR and found it fairly entertaining. I don't expect to get the expansion pack though. At least not until it gets really cheap. Which brings up an interesting point. I don't really have any games to play right now and I can't find anything good coming out in the next couple months. I would love to play Dead Rising, but I'm poor and can't afford a 360. I'm also not really a console gamer so I have no plan on getting a Wii or PS3 -- and since I'm no fan of Sony someone would have to give me one before I owned a PS3. So is the PC gaming market taking the year off and wiating for the consoles to come out before they release anything interesting for PCs? I am looking forward to Bio-SHock, but it isn't coming out untill next year. There is also Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (still a confusing name) which is also pushed back untill next year. Even the They Hunger game is eerilly silent on its release date. While there are some WWII games coming out, man, I am sick of WWII. Even if they are the Greatest Generation, WWII ain't the greatest setting for gaming. Give it up already! Let's not even talk about Battlefield 2142... So it seems like this Holiday season I will be catching up on my reading... ...unless of course someone wants to buy me one of those Playstation 3s...

Ratings? What are they really good for?

user — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 02:04:15 +0000

Lately, there's been some commentary about whether or not the ESRB ratings system is broken. I would agree that the system is broken. However, I don't think it is beyond repair. I think that playing the games is a must. I know that some games, like RPG's can take more than 40 hours and MMORPGs can take forever, but I think that there is certainly something to be said for actually playing the game to get the character of the game. Without playing the game, without doing anything more than just watching gameplay, there is little way of telling the character of the game. You also can't tell if there is anything more to the game than what the game producers say is in the game. Call me crazy but depending on the game producers to be consistently reliable doesn't seem the wisest decision, even if there are penalties for misleading the ESRB. On the other hand, what good are the ratings? Do they actually help things? They may help parents, but I'm not a parent. Do parents actually read the ratings? In the article I linked to, the author, Aaron Ruby says the ratings are poorly designed with too many descriptors. Perhaps. I think that it would be silly for a parent to say, "Oh, animated blood. Well, OK then." After all, There are lots of different types of animation. If we want to use an analogy, Fritz the Cat has animated blood, but I don't think it is appropriate for children. On the other hand, the film ratings have some truly bizarre descripters. Next time you see a movie rating, look beneath the R or PG. I mean I remember one film being rated R for "pervasive language." What is that? Call me crazy but I prefer my movies to have language that is pervasive. Perhaps they meant pervasive bad language (whatever "bad" means...). However, as gamers, we should be used to having videogames attacked (I love it when reporters or politicians mention that videogame ratings in the USA are self-enforced and neglect to mention that so are film ratings and parental advisory stickers on music....). However, I think that we should site back and wait. The reason why is that the current trend in the film industry is to release a PG-13 film to the theaters, and an "unrated" edition on DVD. Mark my words, it is only a matter of time before some moral crusader takes note of the fact that poor little Timmy is able to buy a film with boobies in it from the store. Then the film industry will get the attention the videogame industry has been experiencing. Maybe then the news will realize who stupid this whole ratings controversy is.

Insert comment here...

user — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:41:57 +0000

LIke I last mentioned, I'm not playing much lately. I've got some console games to play, but if I'm going to sit in my recliner, I'm going to kick back and watch a crappy movie or The Tribe season 3 and 4 dvds I bought. I have been playing a lot of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, but that's a really short game. I loved the predecessor, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, but this isn't so much a sequel as a remake since it is really just the same game with slightly prettier graphics and tweaked gameplay. I feel like I should say something about Jack Thompson's latest debacle, but I think I covered my thought on it over at game politics:

Jack will initially cry foul but in 3-4 months he will begin to use this case as evidence of his accomplishments by saying how he was the first person to force a judge to review a game before it was released or some crap. Remember, here is Jack’s pattern: 1.Make outrageous claims 2.Repeat claims 3.Lose and/or be proven wrong 4.Claim that he lost because evil people are against him and/or claim he really won. 5. ??? 6.Profit!

Even though I thought that the guys from Destructoid were kind of jerks at E3 earlier in the year, they did a bang up job covering the court case.

Darn those violent videogames!!!

user — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 02:49:08 +0000

With the mid-term elections coming up, local television has been inundated with political ads. One of the local candidtates, Mike Sodrel and his political party have been running ads against Baron Hill (Of course Baron Hill's people have been running negative ads as well. They just aren't as noteworthy.). The funny thing is, these ads seem like they are actually asking me to vote for Hill and not against him. In the first one, Sodrel says that Hill voted against "protecting traditonal marriage" (how banning gay marriage protects marriage is beyond me) and voted against "protecting our flag" (which would be ever so effective...). Who knew those were bad things? And not, the latestest ads bring out the big guns: videogames!

Nice to know that in Indiana the biggest issues are videogames. Good thing there isn't a war going on or anything... What will the next ad be? Baron Hill supports blogger? Baron Hill supports left-handed people? I for one can't wait!

Genre Trouble

user — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 17:48:19 +0000

With appologies to Judith Butler, it seems that there is some genre trouble going on in the videogame world. The October issue of Edge magazine has a short column about the fact that there are a million Grand Theft Auto III clones coming out and "GTA Clone" isn't exactly the best name for it. I'll go ahead and commit copyright infringement by posting the fill text of it here since it doesn't seem to be online (Insert here a rant about how expensive Edge magazine is in the USA and how they need an electronic version because I'm poor.):

Just Cause, Scarface, Crackdown, Dead Rising, Yakuza, Saints Row, Gangs Of London ? oh, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. And that's just in this month's issue: there's no question a genre has just come of age. Pity we still have no idea what to call it. The 'GTA-clone' ? not that it was ever an elegant phrase ? just won't cut it any more, not in the face of the extraordinary diversity listed above. And surely no one's seriously suggesting that we wrap our tongues around 'the free-roaming action adventure' from here on in. Or we could take a tip from the Germans: if for them platform games are 'run-and-jumps', perhaps we could have the 'drive-and-shoot'? Perhaps not. But that last idea raises another problem. Possibly held back by the fact that we still don't have a name for it, it's still not really been agreed what the key components of the genre actually are. It needs to take place in a freely accessible world, but does that space need to be physically contiguous? It didn't seem to need to be in Grand-Theft-Auto-meets-Mars-Attacks Destroy All Humans. Does it have to include combat? Surely yes, but its absence didn't stop Grand-Theft-Auto-meets-The-Simpsons Hit'n'Run being widely claimed a clone. Does it even have to be driving and fighting? There's no question Dead Rising feels a little like it belongs, and yet it doesn't really meet that requirement. Perhaps, appropriately, the only way to judge them is like suspected alcoholics. If a game can tick three of the following boxes, then it qualifies: freely accessible play area, story missions and side missions, hidden packages and/or detailed stats, a civilian population to torment, some form of combat, some form of driving. Does that about cover it? Of course, genres have always been problematic, and they've always had awkward names, but perhaps the GTA-a-like issue is so acute because it's the first true second-generation genre. The familiar roster (driving, shooting, platforming, strategy) are all built around the idea of a game focused on one type of interaction. But what we're talking about is a genre built out of those genres: a genetic inheritance. It's just unfortunate that it's a child that seems to be forever stuck with a double-barelled surname.

I've talked about genre before, as far back as my review of Medium of the Video Game. And I recently made a post about it on a Slashdot story asking about A Definitive List of Gaming Genres. I wrote

Genres are only useful for movie stores... Ok, so that may be an exaggeration, but I think the point remains valid: there isn't much point in coming up with genres. Mark J. P. Wolf in Medium of the Video Game list a bunch of genres that are fairly useless such as listing demos as their own genre. While I'm not a fan of applying film theory to videogames, I think that Rick Altman in Film/Genre makes the most interesting use of genre by syntax and semantics. (Actually, there isn't a lot of need to read the entire book. He lays out syntax and semantics as a way of looking at genre in his article, "A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre" which is widely reprinted and is included as an index in the Film/Genre book).

Regarding the GTA-Clones, besides the obvious title of GTA-Clone, the phrase I seem to hear most is some variation on "urban action." Which of course has problems of its own since there isn't any reason why a GTA-Clone would have to be "urban" in nature. In films, and other media, genres aren't born fully formed like Athena leaping from the head of Zeus. They develope over time. We may think of The Great Train Robbery as the first Western, but it wasn't instantly called that. Other films had to imitate it and take elements from it untill enough film were made that people could look back and retroactively determine what a "Western" was. The same thing will have to happen with GTA-Clones. In a few years, we will be able to look back and make up a name for them that is more descriptive than "GTA-Clone."

Video Game Violence is apparently the number one issue in this election???

user — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:32:34 +0000

It is highly interesting to see how videogames have become such an important issue. What we have here is not simply a failure to communicate, but a generation gap. Old people are statistically heavier voters. Older people are statistically less likely to play videogames. Old people get scared, vote against the person who didn't "protect the children." I can't wait for our gaming generation to get in power. Since my last post about anti-violent videogame political ads it seems that the other issues have all but disappeared from the airwaves. I can't turn on a local channel without seeing one of those videogames are evil commercials. Of course it doesn't hurt that these ads are by National Republican Congressional Committee and not by a specific candidate. That way they can take money from a lot more places than just Indiana and pay for the ads and it also allows the candidates to have plausible deniability since they didn't "approve this message." Last week I got a call from a political party talking about how one candidate voted against lowering taxes for families and things like that. Today, however, I just got a call about how bad it was to vote against laws for prohibiting the sale of violent videogames to children. I'm glad we got that war thing taken care of so that we can turn our attention to these important topics. Oddly enough, the call started off by saying how the opposition had been running negative ad campaigns and then went on to talk about how horrible the opposition candidate was! Irony be thy name! Anyway, I asked the person what was wrong with voting against some stupid violent videogame law. She seemed stunned by that and repeated the questions, "Is there something wrong with voting against laws that would protect children from violent videogames?" I said, "Yeah, what's wrong with that?" She then said maybe the opposition was "out of touch with Hoosier values." I said I was a Hoosier and asked if she thought there was something wrong with my values. Then she hung up.

Pointless Wii box!

user — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:58:57 +0000

So I was at Target with a couple friends the other day looking for some costume stuff and I spot a Wii stand across the store. Hoping it was a gaming kiosk, i head over. Turns out it was just some Wii accessories. Most of it was generic stuff like skins for the controllers and stuff. One item they had, however, was just ponderous. They had a Wii "Metal Box with Magnets" (which you can see here. As my friends and I were examining it, another guy came up an asked us what it was. "That's just what we were trying to figure out." And we never did... We never did...

A close call...

user — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:24:57 +0000

As is appropriate during this Halloween season, I had a very scary gaming-related experience lately. For the past couple weeks, it has become clear that I have passed a milestone that serves as a marker of my l33t-ness: I've nearly worn out the left button on my mouse. Yes, it seems that those hours of killing demons and aliens have finally taken its toll and resulted in a truly unfortunate casualty (and I say this, without any amount of casualty either). My mouse had apparently died. I know, I know, "it is just a mouse!" --But it is my mouse. It is an Intellimouse Explorer 3.0. A silver one. Not those lame black monochrome ones that Microsoft is trying to sell now. After a couple weeks of hoping against hope I could get used to the half broken-ness of the left mouse button, with its seemingly random double clicking, today it got unbearable. I dug out another crappy mouse I had laying around and plugged it in (it was still an optical mouse, and not a ball mouse, though, After all, there are only so many indignities one person can take!) As I began to wrap the cord around the body of the mouse in some sort of burial shroud, I thought, "I wonder if I can take it apart?" (I mean, come on, it was either that or catch up on my grading!) So I took off the rubbery feet and unscrewed it, unsure of what I would find. Once I had done so, I noticed that the little switches that were under the buttons were all the same, but only in different positions. My heart skipping, my hands trembling, I pried off the one under the left button, then the one under the right and then I switched them. I put the cover back on, replaced the screws, plugged the mouse back in and hoped that my deadly addiction to dealing death to demons and delinquents would not have claimed yet another innocent victim. Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to say that the operation was a success! I don't have to buy another mouse any time soon! My mouse lives again!!! Don't make the same mistake I did. Let my story be a lesson to you all: Do not take your mouse for granted!

Seriously Odd Videogame commercial.

user — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 03:53:05 +0000

As nearly anyone who cares about gaming is no doubt aware, Gods of War is coming out for the XBox 360 fairly soon. It isn't Halo 3 coming out the same day as the PS3, but it is pretty good in terms of marketing. When it come to the advertising, I'm a bit stumped. The latest commercial really has me confused as to what it is that they are trying to get across with this ad: The music is Gary Jules' Mad World which is probably most familiar to those who have seen Donnie Darko (of course I'm l33t and heard it on WOXY back in the day). Are they trying to be arty? Are they trying to show some sort of gravitas? Or are they just trying to be emo? Hopefully, someone can clue me in, because I'm just confused. ...And now I want to buy an xbox360.

Are you listening??

user — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:45:30 +0000

I've become a big fan of podcasts mainly since Leo Laporte started putting up his radio show and then started the TWiT podcasts. While 1up.com and PCGamer and even the IUGaming Club have gaming related podcasts, they are all mostly news-related and talking about new games that are coming out. That's fine, and I sometimes listen to them, but I've often thought that there should be a videogame studies podcast. I've thought about doing it myself, but I think it would be boring just listening to me talk. One nice podcast with somewhat of a games studies edge to it is the NPR-funded podcast, Press Start, which is hosted by Robert Holt, Kyle Orland and Ralph Cooper. I only wish it would come out more often! Another podcast I occasioinally listen to is No One's Listening which is not about videogames but about media in general. Now I have to be honest, a lot of times I find myself rolling my eyes at them because they seem so ignorant and naive about media literacy, which is the very thing they are supposed to be talking about. Recently, however, they did a special about videogames. Although listening to hosts whoh admittedly know nothing about videogames or the issues surrounding them can be very irritating, the episode, called Games Under Fire, is worth a listen. If nothing else, you can download it and fast forward through the irritating parts.

Ratings game followup...

user — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 02:50:26 +0000

Back in September, I wrote an entry called, The Ratings Game in which I looked at Computer Gaming World's recent decision to stop printing scores along with their reviews. In that post I noted that it seemed that in many cases, CGW was simply rewriting reviews from their 1up.com site -- reviews which actually had scores attached to them. At the end of that post I noted that CGW was being replaced with Games for Windows: The Official Magazine and wrote:

It will be interesting to see if they retain the "no ratings" policy or if they use that opportunity to reinstate them.

Well, I got the first issue of GFW in the mail a couple days ago and guess what? They have gone back to rating games and printing scores with their reviews. A letter in the issue addresses the issue and their comment is:

The great thing about magazine redesigns is they let you hit the reset button and when you flip to the Reviews section about two-thirds of the way through this magazine, you'll see that's exactly what we did. The Computer Gaming World Viewpoint section was a grand experiment, and we think it was a successful one. We learned a ton. And the Games for Windows: The Official Magazine Reviews and Extend sections reap the rewards. (Page 18)

Now to be fair, they didn't put back their old 5 star system, but they put in a 10 point system which is totally different, right? Of course the only thing that really matters is that I was right, right? I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!

Are videogames remkes of movies?

user — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 02:51:25 +0000

The journal The Velvet LIght Trap recently released a call for papers for a special issue about remakes. That got me thinking about the recent trend of making videogames based on old movies. Just this year games based on, The Godfather, The Warriors, Jaws, and Scarface have been released -- and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. What are these games? Since the call for papers asked for papers about remakes, the question that popped to my head was, "Are these remakes?" In some cases, they are sequels. In other cases they are side stories. Can a story taken from one medium and made in another even be a remake -- that is to say, are adaptations different things than remakes? Must a remake be in the same medium as the original? Is a film of Romeo and Juliet a remake? I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

So Many Consoles, So LIttle Money......

user — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:41:09 +0000

So we've now seen the launch of the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii (worst name evar...) and the good old 360. And me? I got nothing. I was going to go out and do some coverage of the local game launches, but none of the local stores did any midnight sales or even seemed to have people camping out and waiting in line. So no coverage for you! Personally, I bought Half-Life 2 for X-Box for $9.99 just to see how it compared to the XP version. It looks the same, but the controls blow. The right stick is used to aiming and if you click it, you zoom in, but you can't shoot. Therefore, inevitably, whenever I get into a tense fight, I inadvertently click the stick, zoom in, can't shoot, and die. The D-Pad is used to switch the weapons. In a fairly clever approximation of the PC version's menus where multiple weapons would be under each number, the X-Box D-pad has four categories with multiple weapons under each one and pressing in the same direction multiple times will cycle through the weapons in that category. The problem is, however, to switch you have to take your thumb off the left stick which is used to control the direction you are going. So when you switch weapons, you have to stop moving, which is frustrating. I've started to stretch my right thumb over to the D-pad to switch. I've played Halo, I've played Goldeneye, and now I've played Half-Life 2 -- all on consoles. And guess what? They all sucked. So is the appeal of games like Goldeneye and Halo simply people that have never played FPS games on a PC? Or is there something I'm actually not getting about these games? On some level, I suppose it is similar to EA who keeps releasing Madden for PCs. Who buys those? If you are going to play Madden, buy a console. If you are going to play a FPS buy or build a gaming computer.

Where's the hype???

user — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:03:56 +0000

So now the Wii, the PS3 and the XBox360 are all out. Where's the hype? Is there anyone else who seems like there really isn't any rason to buy any of these? Only the Wii with it's remote controller seems to be worthwhile at all. Gears of War looks cool, but I don't know why it would take a 360 to play it. I've mentioned before that I haven't seen any games coming out lately that I'm really interested in, so perhaps I'm just getting jaded? I'm intersted in HL2 Episode 2, and ummm.... that's about it. If Dead Rising would come out for PC, I'd be all over that. So what AM I playing? I am playing a bit of HL2 on the XBox, and I'm playing a lot of Weird Worlds. So the question is, "Is the lack of games I find interesting my problem or the industry's problem?" I would imagine both. I'm poor and I'm busy, so the few things out there that do look interesting I don't have money or time to hunt out. Hopefully after the new year I'll have more time. Untill then, come on gaming industry! Give me some spectacle!

Games for Windows???

user — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:50:29 +0000

One of thestories that has been going around the gaming magazines and news sites is Mircorosft's new "Games for Windows" initiative. In addition to some stuff that will be in Vista, it basically ammounts to that magical word, "advertising," and that other magical word, "branding." The Holiday 2006 issue of PCGamer has a coverstory about "Windows Vista and the Future of Gaming" that discusses the Games for Windows initiative with some industry people. Scott Miller of 3D Realms has some surprisingly candid things to say. In response to the question whether or not this initiative will do any good he quite wisely says that the best thing to do would be to make Windows suck less. On the other hand, when asked if he was excited by the prospect of Microsoft buying shelf space at stores for games, Miller has an odd response:

"All of this is frivolous. If Microsoft really wanted to help the game industry, [it would] lobby to instate a legal window whereby retailers cannot resell games within two months or so. (31)

So Miller thinks that more laws and not selling used games would be the solution??? Call me crazy, but I think his first quote makes a lot more sense than his second. Case in point, Call of Duty 2. Sunday I went to the store to buy a game and because it was on sake, I deceded on Call of Duty 2. I got it home and opened the box only to see that the game came on 6 cds. SIX! What??? That is just insane. A DVD drive can be bought for something like $20. I think it is time to get rid of multi-cd games. So I start to install it and I get some random error that it can't find msvhs30.dll or something. I search around online and find that people are saying that Windows Defender is the cause. So I'm going to have to uninstall itbefore I casn even play the game. I imagine that most people would have just given up without even looking the error up on Google, but having to uninstall a program to get a game to install? That is just plain crap. Because I figured that Windows would want to restart after uninstalling Defender, I was hesitant to uninstall it. On a whim I right clicked on the cd and started the installer instead of the crapy "autorun" program and guess what? It installed without a hitch. So the problem wasn't the game, but the stupid autorun splash screen thing. Even more lame. Of course, as any PC gamer knows, the lameness wasn't over yet, because the stupid game insists on having the cd in the drive in order to play the game. Sure, because I love th sound of my drive spinning up when I start a game... So I have to go online and download some hack to get rid of the cd check. And some people think selling used games is the problem with PC gaming??? It seems like ever PC game I've bought lately has been screwed up by everything that goes along with the game and the hoops one has to jump through before you even get to the game. No wonder people pirate games. I've had to download a pirate copy of a game that I bought couldn't get to run because of all this crap and I'll admit I've downloaded a couple of older games that I wanted to play for my research. You know how much trouble I've had getting those pirated games to run? Absolutely none. Maybe there's a message in there soemwhere...

Girls, Girls, Girls...

user — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:22:37 +0000

It is that time of year again. Yes, the annual Play Magazine GIrls of Gaming issue has come out. The last time I talked about it, I got more comments than just about any other post I've made. Guess what? I still don't get it. However, that isn't the topic of my post. It is just a coincidence that I saw this magazine on the stands the same week I saw another story related to gaming. The game Left Behind: Eternal Forces has been getting a ton of criticism, including groups calling for the game to be taken off the shelves because apparently, if you can't convert people, you can kill them. While that sounds pretty inflammatory, context is everything. After all, this is supposed to take place after the rapture, right? So arguments about a game showing a religious group killing non-beleivers aside, within the game, the presence of a creator has already been made apparent. I don't know about you, but if it became clear which religion was correct through some incident like the disappearance of those who follow that religion, I'd have to start thinking about converting. If there are things that the mainstream media loves to report, they are religion and those darn evil videogames. So it should come as no surprise that this story has been picked up both far and wide. However, I'm not going to chastise the media for once again playing the "What about the children?" card. No, I'm writing this because there is something even more insidious about the themes of the Left Behind games: sexism. Apparently, for all the press that the game has received, only the gaming media has actually played the game because according to a post called, The Difference, by Dan Stapleton, Assistant Editor at PC Gamer in the game characters can be converted and become your friend. But on the other hand, there is another group of characters who you can convert who are called, "friend woman." So right off the bat we have the fact that if you are a man, you are in effect genderless. You are just a friend. If you are a woman, then you are marked as a different class and your difference is marked by the really odd term "friend woman." However, it doesn't end there. You can train your friends and friend women. These friends "can be trained to pursue a number of careers, including soldier, medic, musician, builder, or recruiter/evangelist." The friend women can be trained to have a medical or musical career. Apparently, after the rapture not only will we be killing people we can't convert, but we will also be limiting the career choices of women.... (click on the link to the column for screen shots and some interesting commentary about this)

That's good proofreader there SpikeTV...

user — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:39:08 +0000

Last week was the first airing of the Spike TV Video Game Awards. I saw part of it, but I didn't see the end because Jack Thompson was on Nightline the same night. I wanted to see the end of it, so I went to Spike's site for the awards. It said they would be replayed Saturday, but they weren't. They were on today. I thought that maybe I read the site wrong, so I went and checked out the site again. I saw this and realized why I got confused. It seems that TV for Men has a whole different calendar of their own where the 17th is Saturday and not Sunday... (Just a note, the comments are messed up. It gives an error if you try to leave a comment, but they go through. I just have to approve them first. I'm going to switch to wordpress sometime in the next month or so and so I'm not going to bother trying to figure out what's wrong with the commenting system. Sorry! Thanks for the comments though!)

Reviews, Reviewing, and Reviewers...

user — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:38:08 +0000

What seems to be the biggest story in the gaming industry lately is the large number of people leaving Ritual, the makers of Sin Episodes. Natuarlly, this has people wondering, "Does this mean the end of Sin Episodes?" Although the newly appointed head of Ritual says they are still making the next installment. Now, I'm not writing this because I particularly care if the next Sin Episode gets made. After all, I found the first one to be, shall we say, "excessive. No, I'm writing this because somehow the rumors of the fate of Sin got so out of control that Slashdot reported the story as saying that on the podcast for the Games for Windows Magazine, (aka Computer Gaming World) " employees from Ritual Entertainment confirm that SiN Episodes is finished. I was curious, so I listened to the podcast in question (direct link to the mp3) and of course, the podcast contains nothing like that whatsoever. Basically, it is just the editors of GWM just sitting around gossiping about what they think might happen because of the departures. Oddly enough, after they finish talking about Ritual, they start talking about Left Behind: Eternal Forces (at about the 23:35 point). In particular, they start to talk about why they weren't planning on reviewing it. This led to a discussion on which games they decide to review and what they are looking at when they review a game. This is of interest because I just got finished playing Call of Duty 2 and was thinking about the experience of playing it. One of the main reasons that they said they weren't planning on reviewing the Left Behind game was simply that they didn't think their target audience would be interested. They said something to the effect that, "That's why we don't review hunting games." I think that's a perfectly valid (or cromulent) reason not to review a game. After all, they don't review a lot of those Barbie or Nancy Drew games. Another reason that I didn't find quite as valid was that they were concerned about the subject matter. At about 25:15 in one of them says, "We basically said, 'No we don't want to review it' because of the controversy that goes along with it and no matter how we presented it, someone was going to take offense." Another of the editors challenged that opinion asking what they were afraid of and what if it was a really good RTS game? The response was, "I think the challenge there that we're avoiding there I suspect is not being confident that we can address the intersection of content and you know between actual gameplay and the way things are executed and then the thematic -- err everything else that is going on that makes the game what the game is. [...] if the unit balance is awesome and the tactics are cool, does it matter that the theme of the game is that you gotta kill or convert non-Christians?" "And that's a big challenge because we always -- and we, I'll just speak for critics at large -- are very capable of going in with a Consumer Reports angle and saying 'this works' or 'this doesn't,-- --these little Satanists that I'm fighting get stuck in buildings and don't come out when I fight them' but when you get to the point where what we don't do so well or very often -- at least at large -- is say, 'What does this all mean? How does this come together? What is it saying? What do we think about this thing other than just the mechanics of it was fun to shoot that or that AI worked well or this environment was shady?' That's where I think the real criticism is at and this could have been a model game [to do that]' They then go on to say that you don't go to a Mel Gibson movie and just ignore any possible themes or messages in it. The reviews editor said that they didn't review it because they thought that people that didn't believe in the themes of the game would be offended, but another editor pointed out that conservative Christians might be offended by the themes of Doom. After discussing it a bit more, they decide that maybe they should review it. While I'm glad at least one of the editors decided that it is worth talking about the themes of the games, it is a bit disheartening that it wasn't the reviews editor who thought that it was a good idea to do that. All of this brings me to Call of Duty 2. The game doesn't have as obvious themes as the Left Behind game, however, unlike many other games, Call of Duty 2, like a whole slew of WWII games is based on an actual event and attempts to recreate situations that could at least have plausibly happened. That is more or less what made me a bit uncomfortable in playing the game. There is a world of difference between shooting the Strogg or Combine and shooting Germans. Now maybe I'm the only one that feels this was since the WWII genre is eternally popular in videogames, but I think it is more than just my own hangups or German ancestry (They left Germany in the 1860's so it isn't as if they had anything to do with the atrocities that happened in WWII). As I was writing this, I was also playing Postal 2 and apparently one of the patches adds a secret mission (hunt around behind your house and there is a sewer tunnel that takes you to it). This secret mission is populated entirely by characters who look like Osama Bin Laden (and later in the actual game Osama Bin Laden characters show up). So the strange thing is that I didn't feel weird about shooting Billions of Bin Ladens. The question, then, is why do I feel weird killing Germans but not Bin Ladens? Is it because Bin Laden is an individual while Germans are a nationality? Who knows? I think that the moral of this long and winding post is that it is important to look at the ideologies and messages of the games we play and review.

retro gaming

user — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:05:08 +0000

Been busy lately. No posts lately. Submitted proposal to Association of Internet Researchers conference. It is in Vancouver so I hope to get in and make my triumphant return to Vancouver. I'm trying to get my paper edited for DiGRA 2007 in Japan. I'm not sure if I can afford to go, but if I get in I'm sure going to try. It is right after the Tokyo Game Show too, so I really really want to go. SO click on some ads and click on my Amazon ads before you buy anything from Amazon (I think I'll still get some money even if you don't buy the product that is being advertized, just as long as you click through the link. I just got done playing Project: Snowblind. It started off as a more action-based Deus Ex spin-off, but when Deus Ex 2 didn't do so well they changed the name. There's still the augments and stuff, but honestly, they are pretty pointless. I got through the entire game and barely used them. The best part about the game is that all the cut scenes are skipable and skip them I did. I got it cheap, and that's about what it was worth. Since I modded my xbox I've also been doing some retro gaming. Either I stink, or Super Mario Bros. 3 is incredibly hard. Thank goodness for cheats. Without cheats and the emulator allowing me to save wherever I want I would never have been able to beat that stupid game. While I often hit up gamefaqs.com for help, this is the first time I've really ever used cheats extensively. I never really saw the point of it before, but now I do. Without cheating I would have been so much more frustrated and probably would have quit the game a long time before I got anywhere near the end of the game. mmmmm cheeeaatttssssss.

I played a Wii today.

user — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:38:34 +0000

Today was a horrible sleety windy cold day. As I was walking out of the horrible weather into the library I noticed that there was some computer and activities type thing day and I noticed that the IU Gaming Club was set up in a room. I went into the side of the library with the computers, found an empty one, sat my stuff down and went back out to check it out. It turns out they had a Wii set up. So I got to play Wii Sports including tennis, bowling and golf. Over all, ti was pretty cool. Funny enough, the sports thing brought up an issue I hadn't thought about before. I'm left handed and while I play some sports left handed, I also play some, like golf and bowling, right handed. Switching back and forth from sports is kind of a pain. So I had to think about whether I really wanted to play with the hand I would play the real sport with or would I just play them them all left handed? I've never had to stop and think about which hand to use when I played the Atari 2600! Damn kids these days! I tell you what!

Google enters the in-game ad market -- does this mean they are here to stay?

user — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:46:05 +0000

According to Red Herring, Google has agreed to acquire Adscape Media for $23 million. Adscape is an in game advertising company (according to their website they do "Real advertising in the virtual world"). Combine this with Microsoft buying their own gaming ad firm and it seems like there's a good chance that we are going to be seeing a whole lot of ads in videogames for the near future. Of course the fact that I said the "near future" is no accident. While there may not be much consol gamers can do to block ads in games, PC gamers certainly will figure out how to do it. You can already block ads on your browser so why would ads in your games be any different? While the near future may suck for gaming, I see this as little more than the popup and banner ad boom of 90s. If they can crack the copy protection on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I'm sure they can figure out how to block ads in my games.

About

user — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 21:40:58 +0000

I'm Bryan-Mitchell Young a phd student in Indiana Univerity's Department of Communication and Culture working on my dissertation. My research is an ethnographic exploration of videogame player and in particular LAN parties. I go by jccalhoun online and pretty much everything that turns up when you search for jccalhoun is me. I can be reached at jccalhoun at gmail.com or at bryyoung at indiana.edu The handle jccalhoun is fairly arbitrary and doesn't stand for anything and has no relationship to anyone named calhoun.

That's Doctor(ial Candidate) Young to you!

user — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:40:46 +0000

So I'm finally ABD. Now all I have to do is write up the prospectus, get it approved, write the dis, graduate, get a job, and then get tenure! Easy street here I come!!! ...or not... In other news, I'm following through on my promise to switch over to wordpress. I got it installed, but I want to customize the theme first and then figure out how to redirect the front page to the wordpress blog. Then people won't get error messages when they try to leave comments and I won't have to approve them by hand! Easy street here I come!!! ...or not...

Submissions and such

user — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:15:28 +0000

So I managed to get my paper submitted to Digra's 2007 Conference in Japan. Hopefully I'll get in. And then hopefully I'll be able to afford to go! I'm also working on editing the template on my new version of the blog. It isn't going to look all that different, but I'm just no expert at html and css, so I have to muddle through the best I can. I've also been putting in marathon sessions on Freedom Force vs The Third Reich. It shouldn't be surprising that I'm really enjoying it. After all, I am a comic book nerd, I liked the first one, and I like City of Heroes. (On the other hand though, I thought Ghost Rider was not that good.) I'll probably go finish beating the final boss as soon as I upload this post!

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user — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:05:52 +0000

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user — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:05:53 +0000

Digg is being ruined by self-promotion and spam

user — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 03:17:10 +0000

This isn't really related to gaming, but it is something that i've noticed most in digg's gaming news section. Back in the day I was a huge fan of ZDTV and then later TechTV so I've followed Digg pretty closely almost from the first time Kevin Rose mentioned it on the The Screen Savers. When Digg first started it was a pretty good source of news and info. Lately, however, it seems like 99% of the stories submitted to the gaming news section are just lame asses who take a press release from Sony or Nintendo, put it on their crappy blog and submit the link to their crappy blog to digg. They don't submit stories from anyone else, and they don't digg or comment on anyone else's stories. OF course, if the people on digg would take ten seconds and look to see that a story was submitted from some site they never heard of, and that site is the only one the submitter ever submits, then the quality of digg might be a little better. I realize that self submission isn't against the rules or or anything, but it is just lame. Do we really need fifteen submissions to some crappy blogs telling us what games are going to be on the Wii this week? Call me crazy but I think if your crappy blog was any good people would submit it for you... ...which is, of course, why my blog has never been submitted to digg. There's a lot of good gaming news in diggs gaming section, which is why the new version of the site is going to have my digg feed in a sidebar, but even after the diggs there is still a lot of crap. Does anyone else agree with me or am I the only one?

Why are games so conservative in their themes?

user — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 02:44:01 +0000

Lately I've been thinking about WWII games and themes of games in general. Why are there so many WWII games? In a previous post I talked about the fact that I don't really like them and that it felt kind of odd playing Call of Duty 2 and hearing the enemies talking German. I think that there's also the fact that the games whitewash over the tragedies of the war. Which got me thinking, why do so many games avoid the hard topics? Why aren't there more games that deal with significant issues? I'm not saying that I want games to be meaningful. I don't want games to be art. I would just like some games to try to touch on these topics. Have there been any games about slavery? Abe's Oddysee is the only one I can think of that dealt with it in any significant way. What about civil rights in general? If we need another war game, can we at least have one that features people who aren't soldiers and who aren't one man killing machines? Just one. Then I'll go back to playing Serious Sam or Counter-Strike.

Death to the Doldrums

user — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:16:14 +0000

In the past I was lamenting about the fact that I didn't have any games to play and nothing interesting seemed to be coming out soon. Now I seem to have more games than I know what to do with. They are all old, but they are still new to me. In addition to Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, I've finished Tron 2.0. On the deck I've got Brothers in Arms and I bought Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty: Finest Hour for X-Box. Right now though, I'm playing one of the weirdest FPS games I've played in a long while. That game is Nitro Family. Never heard of it? Neither had I. The reason I'm playing it is that it is by the same team that is making Huxley. In Nitro Family you play a guy trying to rescue his son. The weird part is that you go through the game carrying your wife on your back in some kind of seat. If a bad guy gets to close she automatically uses a whip to sever their heads off. You can also hit a button and she will fly into the air and carpet bomb an area. It used the Serious Sam engine so it looks like and kind of plays like it, only there aren't as many bad guys at a time. However, they do still just run straight at you. They also get stuck a lot of the time so you hear footprints and have to look around to find the stuck guy if you want to kill him. It uses a neat combo system where you have two guns at a time with the left and right mouse buttons controlling the left and right gun. If you shoot a guy into the air, you can shoot him again to get a combo which gives you points that you can use to upgrade the guns. The level design is not that great. There are lots of places where there isn't anything, but it looks like there should be and they just ran out of time. There are also some places where I've been able to get to places where htey obviously didn't want me to go so I could walk through stuff. Unlike Serious Sam where there were secrets everywhere there aren't really any here. Also there are lots of places where it looks like it would be fun to jump up and climb on stuff and either you can't because they just made it too tall, or if you can get up there, there's no point. It is quite possibly the greatest flawed game ever.

Nitro Family may be the weirdest FPS ever

user — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:54:22 +0000

So in addition to the Nitro Family featuring a guy searching for his abducted son while carrying around his wife in some sort of seat, and this combo system where you shoot enemies into the air and shoot them again and again to get points, it also ends weird. Once you beat the final boss the credits start. However, the credits are only on the bottom 3rd of the screen. On the top of the screen you can run around a town out in the mountains with a bouquet of flowers in your hand. As you run around the enemies from the game all stand outside houses (inside fences so you can't get to them) and wave at you. Then you find your wife and if you click the left button you give her the flowers, but if you click the right button apparently you can hit her with them. I say apparently because I gave her the flowers and I didn't feel like trying to beat the final boss again just to try to hit her with the flowers. Oh and did I mention that throughout the game there is a woman who appears on each level who sells you weapons and tells you that if you find 20 gold credit cards you can get a special surprise? Once you find 20 cards, she fives you the number of her hotel room. On the final level, your wife gets off your back and attempts to break into a room. While she's doing that, you go to the weapon saleswoman's hotel room and they play a movie full of oil wells pumping and rockets going off and moaning. Then you go back to your wife and fight the final boss. While I'm sure there are weirder games out there, I officially pronounce Nitro Family to be the weirdest FPS I've ever played.

Must... Defebd... Desktop...

user — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:43:28 +0000

I'm still going to switch over to wordpress sometime in the future as soon as I get back to hacking around on it. However, I've become distracted by my new addiction: Desktop Town Defense. Just going there to get the url tempts me to play it. I must resist! I must resist! But who will defend the desktop if I don't? It is basically kind of like the tank game I used to play in junior high where you and a friend would draw tanks on paper with a pencil and then take shots by scribbling dots on your half, folding it over and then scribbling over the back side of the paper where the dot is to transfer the graphite to the other half of the paper and hopefully on top of your friend's tank. (I hope that makes sense) Only in this one you lay out little automated towers and the little creeps crawl across the playing field in waves. You get points for shooting them and the more levels you go the harder they get so you have to upgrade your towers and such. I'm totally addicted...

A picture says a thousand words ...about the status of videogame studies

user — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:54:12 +0000

I was looking up some stuff about videogames in the library yesterday and I noticed that they had The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto. Since I have talked to the editor Nathan Garrelts at a couple conferences, I thought I would go check it out. I haven't gotten a chance to start reading it yet, but it looks pretty interesting. Once I found it in the shelves I took a second to see what was on the shelves next to it in order to see if there were any other good books near it. This is what I saw: If you can't read the titles they are books about teaching kids with games, tailgating, chess, and mental puzzles. I think that says more about the status of videogame theory than any rant I could write. Damn you Library of Congress Classification System! Damn you to Hell!!!!!

learning what not to do while playing is important too...

user — Fri, 04 May 2007 18:08:33 +0000

The semester is over. I've got my grades all done. I just have to turn them into the university and then the summer will officially start

Last week I was playing Halo with someone who wasn't familiar with playing first-person shooters. I explained to her the controls and started playing. While playing she had a hard time moving around. This is to be expected, but the reasons for this weren't immediately obvious. She didn't have much trouble actually moving the character. Instead, she had a hard time controlling where the character was looking. She would frequently end up looking at the ceiling or the floor, unable to see where she was supposed to be going. This is not the first time I've seen people who are new to FPS games on consols have this difficulty. This got me thinking.

In the past I have thought about the ways in which players have to learn what to do in order to be good at games. They have to acquire skills which are not obvious to those who think that games are mindless entertainment or killing machines. However, in this case it wasn't so much a matter of learning what to do, but learning what not to do.

Of course we can argue that not doing something is actually doing something, but the point is that I at least had not thought that one has to learn restraint. In Halo you have to use the right stick to look left and right, but you also use it to look up and down. However, you look up and down much less than you look left and right. So you have to learn how to move the stick in one direction without accidentally moving it in another. (or move it on one axis but not the other).

Broadening it out I can see how learning when not to do something is a skill that I myself have yet to master. In online games like Counter-Strike it isn't that I don't know how to do something, but that I'm too impatient to learn how not to run around that corner or whatever. And by failing to learn when not to do that is at least one reason why I stink at the game. This is not an Earth shattering insight by any means, but I at least found it interesting.

The missing link

user — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:27:04 +0000

I know I'm a bit late on this one, but in my defense the only Zelda game I ever played was Ocarina of Time. However, I can't believe that they made Link right handed for the Wii version of the game! Miyamoto said:

Although Link is [traditionally] left-handed, at E3 we noticed people seemed to be using the right Wii controller to swing his sword. That's why we decided to make Link right-handed.

As a lefty I find this outrageous! Of course the funny thing is not that they chose to change it because most people are right handed, but that on the message boards I checked out there was always at least one person who said something like, "For the lefties, it isn't that hard to hold the Wiimote in your right hand." OK, let's assume that is true. Then why wouldn't it be just as easy for right handed people to use the Wiimote in your left??? Funny how that doesn't seem to get mentioned... Lefties of the world unite!

Welcome to the new version

user — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:40:26 +0000

After many threats and/or promises I've tried to switch the main page to wordpress. It seems to work but I've had the old site pop up so this may not be seen by anyone! If you do see it, let me know what you think. More important than the look should be the fact that the comments should be working. So leave a comment!

blogdesk-button-20070521181435.gif

user — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:14:37 +0000

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user — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:14:39 +0000

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

user — Mon, 21 May 2007 22:29:23 +0000

Although I'm not fan of WWII games, this one was fairly cheap, so I bought it. I ended up liking it a bit more than other WWII games. Perhaps it was that it didn't glamorize the war or maybe it was simply that you generally didn't get that close to the Germans and so they weren't humanized very much. Unfortunately, there are also some rough spots. First off I can't ignore the question, "Why another WWII shooter?" Like Susan Jeffords' Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era, I suspect that they are reflective of the current political climate. The USA is in the midst of a very unpopular war so perhaps there is some attempt to recapture that feeling of the "good" war or like Faludi argues in her book, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, men are attempting to negotiate a modern way of performing masculinity. I guess someone is going to have to write a dissertation about that... So if we must have to have another WWII shooter, how about one about the experience of African Americans during the war? That would at least be different. Another thing I noticed during this game as well as while watching movies like Saving Private Ryan is that while this is supposed to be taking place in France, with the exception of one scene in Ryan, there aren't any French people. Where were all the French people during World War II?? I don't know any specific details about France during the war, so maybe there were all evacuated or something, but it sure seems odd going through these cities and through buildings and not seeing a single French person. The effect is to make the game sterile, as if there weren't any innocent people and that everyone who died was a soldier. Specifically in WWII, with all the deaths, it is difficult to play a game like this and not think about all the atrocities that occurred. Brothers in Arms" Road to Hill 30 is a pretty good game, but with more depth it could have been much more interesting.

Housecleaning...

user — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:41:38 +0000

I've trimmed some of the dead blogs from the blogroll and updated some of the other broken links. If there are any other gaming blogs out there that I'm missing, let me know. Personally, I've been accepted to the DiGRA Conference in Japan. That is pretty awesome. It will be the first time I've been to a non-English speaking country. ...Of course that is if I can afford to go... So click on those ads over there! Jccalhoun needs the money!

What I'm Buying...

user — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:45:46 +0000

In preparation to begin to prepare to get ready for my trip to Tokyo I asked a friend who has been to Japan for some books and he recommended these: He didn't recommend this next one but I heard about it and since I don't know Japanese so I figured I would buy this too: And finally, this is what I'm currently reading:

Depravity and/or Laziness?

user — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:59:55 +0000

After being the recipient of some interesting accusations, I've had an interesting few days (and no I'm not ishmael). I'm also playing a very lame game called Chaser. It must have been made by fans of Final Fantasy because it has tons and tons of cut scenes. Of course I'm not watching any of them.

Having been accused of defending depravity though, I have been thinking more about the depictions of gender and race in games. Games like Chaser and Brothers in Arms are a good case study. In these games race and gender basically don't exist. Or rather no other genders than masculine and no other races than white exist and so they make gender and race invisible. I can understand a game like Brothers in Arms not including women because it is set in WWII and women weren't allowed in the military front lines. Chaser, on the other hand, is set in the future and goes from a space station to numerous places on Earth and then to Mars! All without women. I talked about race in Brothers in Arms but Chaser doesn't even have the excuse of segregation to explain why everyone is white.

Of course the reason for this is that the vast majority of game developers for First-Person Shooters are white men. However, I'm a white man and I notice these things so why don't they? It isn't some conspiracy. Internalized sexism and racism may be a reason but more than anything it is probably just laziness. Of course the fact that in the US we don't talk about gender or race (except to talk about those damn feminists or playing the race card) means that it isn't something that most people have reason to think about.

But really what I want is for game developers to stop being so lazy. I mean Chaser may be really really not good but at least they didn't make another WWII game. Make a game that is different. Make a game that has different people in it. I like playing games that involve shooting people but I'm tired of all the people I'm shooting in the game being white men!

Changes...

user — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:01:34 +0000

I've bit the bullet and bought my ticket for Tokyo. So I guess I'm committed to go to the DiGRA conference. Let's see, a 6ft 4 guy sitting in coach for 14 hours. That should be fun... Of course since I speak no Japanese I may gain a new appreciation for Lost in Translation. ...no, I don't think anything could make me do that! I also broke down and bought a PS2. Yes, I'm totally on the cutting edge. I got some games from a friend and I'm currently addicted to Simpsons Road Rage. I know it is quite old and just a rip off of Crazy Taxi, but I'm enjoying it. Looking for some tips I ran across some reviews by people who didn't like it as much as I did. I found it really interesting that this person got so worked up about the logic (or the lack of logic) of the game's premise. I'm not saying that this reviewer is wrong or anything. That person is totally entitled to like or dislike the game. It is just interesting to see how someone could be so focused on aspects of the game that I wasn't focused on at all. I agree that the setup doesn't make all that much sense with the character's motivation or that if all the characters are driving their own taxis then the bus would go out of business, but I didn't care. I just want to drive around and smash stuff! To each his or her own, I suppose...

I am SO not in with the in crowd...

user — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:47:35 +0000

After hearing about it for what seems like forever, I bit the bullet and downloaded Second Life. So can you guess what I thought about it? That's right. I didn't get it. I will go back and spend some more time in it but right now, I just don't get it. Now that shouldn't be a big surprise because I also didn't get the Sims. I continue not to get the Sims. I also didn't get what was so great about Buffy and why academics thought it was so awesome. Especially when Xena was better and did all the things Buffy did but first! But I'm sure that most other academics don't get why I'm researching first-person shooters. Oh well. They can have fun researching their 16th century poets and such while I'm in Tokyo! In addition to going to DiGRA I'm also heading to the Association of Internet Researchers Conference in my perpetual conference city Vancouver. (This will be the 3rd conference in 3 years that I've gone to in Vancouver!) Maybe I can get in with the in crowd at Tokyo or Vancouver!

I finally got around to playing Halo 2

user — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:22:50 +0000

I know, I'm only a little behind, but I finally got around to playing Halo 2. And I don't mean the PC version. I mean the X-Box version. I saw it at the pawn shop (the best place to buy movies, in my opinion!) and bought it. I wasn't that big of a fan of the first Halo. I thought it was incredibly average and I really really hated the handling of the vehicles. So what do I think of Halo 2? It seems incredibly average and I really really hate the handling of the vehicles. The mythology of the Halo universe is interesting enough. It is also interesting that they don't really try to remind you of what is going on with the Flood and stuff. It has been three or four years since I've played the original Halo and I didn't really remember what the Flood was about and stuff. On the other hand, I am struck by how primitive the gameplay of Halo 2 is. There's no physics. There's no real interaction with the environment. I hadn't noticed how common or expected those things had become in the FPS world until I played a game that didn't have them. I've been playing some pretty obscure pc fps games lately like Chaser, Alpha Prime, and Red Ocean and they seemed more advanced than the evolved combat of Halo 2. That doesn't mean it is a bad game. However, what it does mean is that Halo 3 is going to have to be quite a bit different to be any good. It will have to include some of the features that have become commonplace since Half-Life 2 introduced us to the gravity gun. Whether or not Halo 3 actually includes things like the ability to pick up things and interact with the environment, it will be a success because of the number of people that will buy it as soon as it comes out. It doesn't matter much to me personally though. I don't have a 360. But it is only a matter of time before I see Halo 3 at the pawn shop. All games end up there eventually...

The current reading list

user — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:17:52 +0000

Currently I'm finishing up Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds. He's here at IU so I figure I should read his stuff. It is interesting so far. It is a bit less academic and aimed a bit more at casual readers than I would like. But it is still a nice read. Some of the things he says about mmorpgs might make good counter-points to some of the things I plan on writing for my dissertation on FPS players. I'm also reading Susan Jeffords' The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War. She wrote it before Hard Bodies and I'm mainly reading it to see if it is just a rough draft of Hard bodies or if there is something different about it. So far it is similar but more heavilly focused on books about Vietnam than film or television.

Computer Games Magazine to be Reborn???

user — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:11:35 +0000

It was a sad day in the gaming world when the news that Computer Games Magazine was shutting down. Well four months later there still hasn't been any official word on the magazine and as a subscriber they still owe me some money (typically when a magazine is canceled they will just switch the remainder of your subscription to another magazine but even that hasn't happened.). Curious as to what was going on I went over to their website. Seeing something on teh front page about a website redesign I went to their forums and found a thread with some good news:

The magazine was shut down in March and it took until the end of May to acquire it (and this site). We're in the process of fixing a number of things simultaneously: Computer Games Magazine and sibling MMO Games Magazine (formerly MASSIVE magazine), plus, we're re-launching both sites (sorry they're a bit broken right now). Existing subscribers will absolutely be taken care of... All subscriptions will be honored when we re-launch (and we might even get you a subscription to another magazine in the meantime). Importantly, we are beginning the process of making all 197 back-issues of CGM available online in some form (a gigantic undertaking). We're committed. We're into it. We're working like crazy. And, the same fine writers are still interested in continuing the excellence CGM readers have enjoyed for the past 20 years. Thanks for hanging in there.

I also noticed that the bottom of the webpage says that Computer Games is now owned by Polaris Media but it leads to a very spartan website which says little to nothing about who they are. Regardless, it looks like there is hope that Computer Games Magazine will be coming back. That's good news in my book. While websites have largely taken the place of videogame news I still have a fondness for magazines and Computer Games was, in my opinion, the best of the US-based magazines. They weren't afraid to look beyond the new games and look at the culture of videogame players and videogaming's role in society as well as how society viewed videogames -- all things that other videogame magazines are sorely lacking. Here's hoping that the reborn Computer Games will continue to look beyond exclusive previews and reviews.

Halo 2 and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point

user — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:37:30 +0000

Wow, a review of Halo 2 for the X-Box. No one ever accused me of being timely. Is this the latest review ever? I only bought it a couple weeks ago so you can't blame me too much, can you? As I said before Halo 2 is really primitive. Halo 3 really needs to be a big jump forward in terms of the way you interact with the world and how the story is told if it wants to be competitive. When the first Halo came out FPS games on consoles were fairly rare, but now there are tons of them. The Halo franchise can only coast along on reputation for so long. I've often discussed my interest in issues of race and gender in videogames. Halo 2 does have some non-white people and women in the game, and of course we don't know Master Chief's ethnicity. However, the Flood and the Covenant seem to be exclusively of one gender and one ethnicity which is kind of lame. Of course the most infuriating thing about Halo 2 is the end. That's been gone over a million times so all I will add is, "I agree. It was too abrupt." Check back here in 2015 for my review of Halo 3! Maybe I'll have a 360 by then... (click those ads damn it!) The FEAR (I'm too lazy to type all the periods) expansion pack was ok. It was disappointing that all of the calls and such that were important in giving the background info in the core game was so sparse and lacking in this one. The most disappointing thing, however, was that half of the game was theoretically about recuing the lady in distress. Lame. While the gameplay was entertaining enough (if only because of those creepy guys that move really fast and you have to do bullet time to see them). It was highly mediocre. It will be interesting to see how the franchise continues since Monolith has the rights to make future games but the publisher has the rights to the name FEAR. I wonder if it will lead to competing games as in the case of the Call to Power games and the Civilization series.

Digra is coming up quick

user — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:10:59 +0000

Now that we are in August, it is less than two months until Digra 2007 in Tokyo. So in addition to preparing by booking tickets, hotels, and taking a couple Japanese lessons, one thing I can't help but think about is, "What cool stuff should I buy?" Certainly, I will get some stuff that I see in stores but since I'm going to a gaming conference I wonder if there is something in particular I should be buying. Is there some game that is Japan-only that is a must have? I know there are tons of dating games and I might pick one of those up for novelty value but I would like to get something that is either good or worth something over here in teh states. Anyone have any ideas?

busy busy busy

user — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 04:10:37 +0000

been busy. School started so I'm teaching but because going to Japan is expensive I'm picking up some additional teaching at the community college. So technically I'm teaching 6 classes. But 3 of them are online so that isn't too bad. Of course it has only been 2 weeks so what do I know? Starting to hear about some of the web2.0 game journalist people mentioning going to the Tokyo Game Show. I hope I'm not so totally jetlagged out that I can't make it. And I hope that they will be there on the last day of the show. I'm just going to go hunting down non-Asian people there and ask them if they are American and/or internet famous. If I do happen to run into anyone in the gaming press I will encourage them to stick around and check out DiGRA so maybe it can get some coverage. That would be swell.

Job opening for Assistant Professor in Digital Media Studies at Indiana University

user — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:30:16 +0000

Yesterday, IU's Department of Communication and Culture announced a job search for a new Assistant Professor in Digital Media Studies. It is one of those jobs that I would love to get except for that thing about universities not wanting to hire their graduates and that i'm not done yet. Here's the job description:

Assistant Professor in Digital Media Studies The Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in digital media studies to begin Fall 2008. We seek an individual with expertise in critical approaches to digital media to join an innovative, interdisciplinary program that includes media studies, ethnography and performance studies, and rhetoric and public culture. While we invite candidates from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, we encourage applicants involved in research on the cultural, p olitical, and communicative aspects of online games and in the broader field of digital game studies. Research may involve the formal qualities of digital games, their social and political dimensions, as well as questions of genre, narrative, and history. Applicants should be prepared to discuss the role that digital media play in shaping perceptions of history and culture, in forging individual and collective identities, and in mediating social change. Applicants are expected to have a strong research agenda and a commitment to excellence in teaching. Preference will be given to candidates who have their Ph.D. in hand by the date of appointment. Applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, writing sample, and three letters of recommendation. Review of applications will begin on November 16, 2007. Address applications to: Christopher Anderson, Chair, Digital Media Studies Search, Department of Communication and Culture, 800 East Third St., Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405. Indiana University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and has a strong commitment to the principle of diversity in all areas. We are especially interested in receiving applications from a broad spectrum of scholars, including women, members of racial and ethnic minorities, and disabled individuals.

If anyone has a questions about IU or the Department of Communication and Culture feel free to drop me a line or hit me up at DiGRA. I'm not involved with the job search or anything at this point so I can't give you any inside scoop but I can tell you the inside scoop on the department itself and our new building which doesn't have a name.

Pre-Digra

user — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:37:38 +0000

Here's a short video I filmed and posted in order to test if this stuff works (and yes I am a giant. Don't make me crush you!). I'll be taking off for Tokyo tomorrow. I've got a fancy new digital camcorder (see the ad below) that I'll be using to take videos of stuff. Hopefully there will be wifi in the hotel so I can upload some of them. Wish me luck!

I'm here

user — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:16:57 +0000

ok Japan. I'm here. Where were my dancing and singing kids? Is that tomorrow? I'm at the hotel thanks to some guy who helped me navigate the Tokyo subway (we ain't got no subway in Indiana!). After that I"m not sure if I can make my way to the Tokyo Game Show tomorrow or not. I've been awake for 24 hours and I think the toilet is possessed. I just hope that it doesn't catch on fire. More when I wake up.

Tokyo Game Show

user — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:52:16 +0000

japan day 1 036, originally uploaded by jccalhoun.

So when I got up I decided to try to go out to the Tokyo Game Show. Luckily, I didn't have any problems navigating the train system (although I think I overpaid on my way out but so what?).
Overall the show was pretty darn cool. Loots of noise and tons of people. Also tons of boothbabes. It was very weird seeing all these people taking pictures of them.
There were also some wild cosplayers but I didn't take pictures of them because they had a sign up saying you had to have permission and there were people standing in singlefile lines just to take pictures of them.
I got tons of fliers and fans and a few cds of stuff. A couple things that I guess are little cell phone dangly things? I don't really know.
I didn't really play too many games because most things interesting like the Metal Gear Solid stuff had lines of an hour or so.
I did play what was one of the few FPS games there and I'm fairly certain it was the only one that hasn't been made by a North American or European company. It was called PaperMan and its gimmick was that all of the character models looked like something out of PaRappa the Rapper. All of the character models were 2d and so if you looked at someone from the side it was hard to see them. In the trailer they played there was a scene where one person shot through a hole in another person and hit a 3rd guy. I'm not sure if that is actually possible but if so that is pretty neat.
I stood in line for about 20 minutes to play it and there wasn't really anything all that interesting about it aside from the looks. The weapon models look straight out of Counter-Strike but there were only like 4 weapons in the demo. The characters moved really slow. There are some powerups but they didn't seem to do much.
Take a look at the flickr set of pictures if you want. I'll post some videos in the morning.
Tomorrow, Akihabara!

Tokyo Game Show Videos

user — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:37:26 +0000

tokyo day 2 Akihabara 011

user — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:20:12 +0000

tokyo day 2 Akihabara 011, originally uploaded by jccalhoun.

Yesterday I made my way to Akihabara. It is twice as big and twice as crazy as you could imagine. The first store I went into was 5 floors of action figures.

On the other hand it is almost impossible to go into dvd stores without accidentally wandering into creepy softcore pron.

I had some awesome Indian food. Yes I had Indian food in Japan. I don't like Japanese food very much but I love Indian so if there's a choice, it is Indian every time.

Today I give my paper. luckily it is at 10:30 on the first day so hopefully there won't be too many people there!

Here's a link to my flickr set of Akihabara pictures.

Tokyo Trip DiGRA summary

user — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 02:44:26 +0000

I didn't get around to posting for every day of the confernce so here's a general overview of my experiences. On the first full day of DiGRA 2007 I gave my paper and it was givetastic. They say it is better to give than receive... I didn't do a very good job of fitting it into the time period so what little point I had was probably garbled. Oh well. On that day I saw someone cite CMCL grad Bob Rehak and I really really wanted to deliver a version of that famous line about knowing Kennedy and you not being him. Unfortunately, the person citing Bob didn't misuse Bob's paper or anything and I didn't have the guts just to randomly say that! I started Wednesday by heading back to Akihabara. I just couldn't get enough. Either that or I wanted to go buy this Matrix limited Edition DVD set that I had seen.
I decided to take the train over to Akihabara instead of walking. Unfortunately I got a but turned around when I got off the train and ended up accidentally walking nearly half way back to the hotel before I realized what I had done! But once I had figured that out I was able to go back to the store where I had seen the Matrix box and it was less than 1900 yen! Sweet! Then I went to a 6 story arcade that I had somehow missed on my earlier trip. Because it was fairly early in the morning there weren't many people there so I nearly had the place to myself. There were lots of games that I had no idea how to play. Then, on the 4th floor, over in the corner, I saw two of the following machines: It was Half-Life 2: Survivor!! So I had to play a bit. I played through the Ravenholm level and I can see why, aside from being part of a genre that isn't all that popular in the East, why the game was not all that successful. One reason is the controls. It is weird in that there is a chair and the controls are kind of like a bulldozer or something (and that it is yellow and orange and black also gives it a feeling of heavy machinery). There is a control on each arm rest. One for basically the equivalent of the WASD keys that was basically a big knob you moved forward, back, left, and right and on the right arm is a joystick that you can twist to turn left or right, pull forward or back to look down or up and with a trigger to fire. Another reason is that the game is basically designed as a quarter eater. The game itself is broken into levels and in the attempt to make it more like House of the Dead or one of those rail shooters they put labels and arrows on the bad guys. Each "level" is broken into 3 areas which are the highlights of the level. At the end of each level you have to put in another coin (a 100 yen coin in this case). As far as I could tell there isn't a gravity gun and so all the puzzles that require it are either gone or shown in cut scenes. There are a lot of cut scenes. In between is the physics stuff or the switching from a vehicle to on foot. Alex and the other NPCs don't seem to exist. After that I went to get some more tasty Indian food and headed off to DiGRA. That afternoon and Thursday I attended panels and such. Fellow IU person Edward Castronova gave a well-received keynote one day. He asked for volunteers from the audience. Of course I couldn't resist the opportunity to take the stage. The next day Marc Prensky gave the keynote. Many seemed to think that he talk was better suited for a different audience but I think it was a good idea to bring someone in to try to talk about the useful potentials of games. Friday morning I checked out of the hotel, drug my luggage over to the conference to get the cd of the proceedings and then hit the airport. Luckilly, I ran into a couple of Canadians and we were able to help one another find the station and our seats on the train so I was able to get to the airport in time. Of course when I got home I found that my cd of the proceedings had been smashed in my luggage! Oh well I have the printed proceedings and I can only assume that pdfs of the papers will be made available on the website since every other year has been put online. The plane ride was as horrible as you could imagine a 11 hour plane ride for a 6ft 4in 255lb man would be. At Narita I chose the slowest line to get through Japanese customs -- the people were literally counting how many people would get through other lines for every one person that got through ours. I think the final count was 3 to 1. I had a transfer at the Detroit airport and let me tell you, the Detroit airport is horrible. I've never had such a pain in my ass at an airport as I did at Detroit. First we had to get our passports checked. Again I got the slowest line. This time people were counting7 people for every one in our line. At one point the guy actually got up and walked out of the booth! Then we had to pick up our bags even though we were getting on another plane and go through customs. Because I made the mistake of traveling alone I got picked to have my bags hand searched. Yay! That only took an hour to get up to the front of that line. The actual customs guys barely even looked at my bags but it was enough to make me have to hurry to make my connecting flight. I finally got back to Indianapolis, got my vehicle out of long term parking and made my way back to Blomington. Then I went to sleep for 16 hours! Today I've just been recovering from the jet lag. It is good to be home. Tomorrow I will post about my overall thoughts on the conference and post some things that they don't tell you about Japan (like the fact that they have awesome Indian food!)

Tokyo Trip DiGRA Final Thoughts

user — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:50:22 +0000

Funny how being away for a week means you are buried under a mountain of grading. So Japan and DiGRA was really fun. After about three days I was ready to come home though. There were lots of interesting papers at the conference. Although I'm more of a qualitiative kind of guy it seems as if most of the ones I saw dealing with players were quantitative in nature -- not that there's anything wrong with that. Fact that they don't tell you about Japan: Although they have some really nice packaging, they love to put things in bags. No matter what or how little you buy they will put it in a plastic bag. I went to McDonalds one morning because I was hungry for American style breakfast. They put my order in the McDonalds paper bag and then put that bag into a clear plastic bag. Although the conference was in Japan the majority of the panelists were still white people. I didn't see anyone of African decent. So we have a lot of work to do in making games studies more multicultural. This didn't surprise me any but it was interesting to see that Scandanavia is still really the hotbed of games studies. Americans were few and far between. As such there were a lot of people who knew each other. I met a few people but overall the language barrier and not knowing anyone led to a kind of lonely trip. Fact they don't tell you about Japan: They drive on the left. Now I knew that, but it didn't really sink in until the second day when I was trying to cross the street and looked the wrong way and almost got ran over by oncoming traffic. The corollary of this is that they also tend to walk on the left side of the sidewalk. That's something I've always wondered about with countries that drive on the left. I constantly found myself walking against the flow of pedestrian traffic only to realize what was wrong after a few minutes. This really mattered on escalators. On most of them it is courteous in Japan to stand on the left side so that people in a hurry can run up (or down) the right side. Of course I always found myself stepping on the escalator and standing on the right side out of force of habit. At the conference it was fun to put faces to names that I've read and in some cases communicated with for years. There were a couple cases were I have been trying to connect with some IU people but had to go all the way to Japan to finally meet them or I hadn't seen them since the Vancouver conference two years ago. My panel also happened to have an IU graduate on it. Funny how you have to travel almost literally half way around the world to meet people that are at the same school as you! Over all the conference was nice. It was quite good to be around people who had read (most of) the same things and know the subject matter. I didn't even have to explain what I meant in my paper when I was throwing around the US and Japanese names for the Nintendo or what 2600 meant! Although there are people here at IU that study games, the department has been very supportive of my project and we are hiring someone for a "digital media" position, it can get a bit frustrating not to have anyone around to talk to about such questions as, "Why makes Final Fantasy a "role-playing" game?" I probably know more about film theory and film history than the average guy on the street but my dvd collection looks a lot different from the collection of most of my colleagues and whenever I have to talk about film in one of my classes there is always one student who knows a lot more of the nitty gritty details than I do. So my trip was a good one. Even if it did leave me broke and in debt (click those ads!). I look forward to the next one. (Of course I have to finish my paper for the conference in Vancouver I'm going to next weekend first...)

AoIR Vancouver

user — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:35:54 +0000

So for the 3rd time in something like 2 years I've just gotten back from a conference in Vancouver. Vancouver must be some academic conference magnet or something. AoIR was a good experience. Met some people from other departments in IU. Met some people from THE Ohio State U. Caught up with a couple people I had met at other conferences. Good stuff. The conference was held at Simon Frasier University. I couldn't help but think that there was a "T" missing from all of the SFU logos I saw around. I gave my paper on the last day of the conference, during the last session, in the biggest room (the same room the keynotes were held in). The other person that was supposed to be on my panel didn't show so it was just me. I'm sure the 6 people who showed up enjoyed my rousing presentation that raised lots of questions but offered no answers. While DiGRA was great -- mainly because it was in Tokyo -- I think I made a lot more connections and had a lot better conversations with people at AoIR. I have to say though that I'm all traveled out. Going to two different countries two months in a row and being 6ft 4 flying in coach is not my idea of a good time. Tall people shouldn't have to ride in coach! Now on to writing that prospectus thingy...

Thank you to all the little people...

user — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:15:16 +0000

After several years of having ads on the site I got my first check from Google today. I can now retire comfortably with the $100 I've made from this site. I'm big pimpin' baby!

What's in (the formating of) a name?

user — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:49:15 +0000

I've been reading some stuff lately and I've begun to wonder about the formatting of titles. In at least MLA citations the titles of books are italicized, and short stories are in quotation marks. There are also conventions for musical albums and songs and poems. So what exactly is the rational for games. Should it be Half-Life? I would say so. However, when we get to non-digital games it gets a bit trickier at least in my mind. What about Monopoly? probably. What about Chutes and Ladders? It is in the public domain, isn't it? Chess certainly doesn't seem right. Nor does baseball. But what about Madden 2008? There seems to be some sort of rule or guideline but I'm not sure what it is. Interestingly, at least whoever last edited the Wikipedia enty for Snakes and Ladders makes some sort of distinction when it states

The most widely known edition of Chutes and Ladders in the USA is Chutes and Ladders...

Of course it is wikipedia so it could just be some random formatting problem. If intentional, however, it seems to be making a distinction between a general version of the game and a maker's specific version. Is there a hard and fast rule or are we out there on our own?

That's it, I'm transferring!

user — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:39:54 +0000

OK, maybe not, but Northern Virginia Community College has set up something I would love to do here at my school: dedicate a computer lab to gaming. Here's a video of the Northern Virginia Community College "Game Pit."

What's in (the lack of) a name?

user — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:17:42 +0000

So I'm doing what most videogame studies people do, reading Edge Magazine and I notice something. This is something that most people have probably noticed years ago but I'm a little slow sometimes. So what did I notice? The articles in Edge Magazine are apparently created from the hive mind of the magazine's staff because they don't list the writer's name on any of the articles. When I bought this issue of Edge I also bought Games™ Magazine which slavishly follows Edge's style and layout and they don't give their writers credit either. Well that isn't entirely true, because Edge does qive their columnists credit. So columnists are more important than the person who writes the cover story? Is this common practice in the UK or in certain types of periodicals? I can only assume that they are attempting to give the magazine a uniform style and don't want to single out anyone. But what does it say about game journalism that the most respected videogame magazine doesn't tell you who is writing what?

Monday night Starz shows Hollywood Goes Gaming

user — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:06:01 +0000

I don't have Starz so hopefully someone will make this "available" online. Monday night Starz is going to show Hollywood Goes Gaming. However, based on the description I wouldn't get my hopes up for a knowledgeable or accurate discussion:

Hollywood makes movies based on video games - "300", Lara Croft - and hit video games are often created from movies ("The Godfather", "Scarface"). Meet the stars and players from both industries in this Starz Originals production. 2007, TV14, USA

We all remember that great game that inspired the movie 300, right? It wasn't as if 300 was based on a comic book and not a game or anything... Still, I'm sure it will be worth a look for those that have Starz.

Download Trigger Happy for free

user — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:07:17 +0000

Steven Poole has put up his really good videogame book Trigger Happy as a free download on his website. If you haven't read it, shame on you. Here is your chance and if you have, it is always good to have a pdf copy and he has put up the 2004 afterword as well which I've never read since my version of the book didn't have it yet. Cool stuff.

Interesting week for reviewers

user — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 03:14:55 +0000

So there's quite the controversy over the firing of a reviewer at gamespot.com with allegations that he was fired for giving a bad review to a game that was an advertiser for the site. This comes a couple weeks after pne of the Penny Arcade guys says that game reviewing is essentially broken. Overall, I think I kind of agree. Think about it, game reviewers are almost always under pressure to be the first one to review something so they have to rush through the game. Movie reviewers don't have to watch a movie on fast forward nor do music critics. But most movies are 90 minutes and most albums are even shorter than that. But even short games are 10 hours and the Half-life episodes are something like 4-6 hours. So it really isn't fair to review a game in the same way you review a film. Game reviews need to stop being so focused on getting out first, and certainly need to stop worrying about pissing off the advertisers. Moreoever, reviews need to change their content. Most reviews are the same format: gameplay, graphics, multiplayer. Sure those are interesting but isn't there more to it than that? On a somewhat related note is the fact that at the heart of this is the competition to be the first and the pressure is double for gaming magazines. They have lag time between writing in publication of months compared to a websites potential to have mere minutes between writing and publishing. They can't compete with websites for exclusives forever. They need to stop trying. They need to offer things that more websites don't do. There's the saying quality over quantity but I think in this case the phrase should be quality over quickness. Do something different and maybe your reviews won't stink and maybe you won't have to rush through a game and maybe just maybe you won't be so dependent on preview access to games so you won't have to worry about pissing off gaming companies.

Can you digg it?

user — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:57:42 +0000

This is mainly for anyone who reads this stuff through rss, but I thought it would be useful to give a heads up. Lately I've been making an effort to submit and digg any interesting stories I come across that are gaming related. If you go to the main page you can see them on the right but if you really care you can put my digg rss feed into your newsreader http://digg.com/rss/jccalhoun/index2.xml I'm trying not to digg stories like "OMG teh trailer for GTA4 is out!!!!" but rather stories that are a bit deeper and have something more to them than simply posting the latest press release and when I run across what I think it a particularly good blog post I try to submit it to digg so it will show up in that fee as well. ...and that feed is probably the only place anyone will see it since I think the most any of my stories has gotten is like 6 diggs or something... So if you care, subscribe to the rss. If you don't then subscribe anyway!

I'm no Rock Band All-star but I am a little slow...

user — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:47:19 +0000

A week and a half or so ago there was a Rock Band contest held on campus. I had played Guitar Hero 2 a little but and I was in a band back in high school so even though I had never played Rock Band I figured I would go and check it out. Well, it turns out that I ended up on the drums and even though I had messed around on our drummers drum set playing drums in Rock Band ain't the same as playing a real drum set (for one the drum pads that take the place of the cymbals are at the same level as the ones that are supposed to be drums which means that it makes it hard if not downright too hard to bother with to hit the "snare" with your left hand and the "high hat" with your right so you end up doing the snare with your right hand and the high hat with your left). Needless to say we did not win. This week I had an interview for a teaching fellowship so I went to get a new suit. While I was at it I figured I would go to Radio Shack to pick up some stuff I needed. One of the things I was going to get at the shack was watch batteries. You see, I had got this little key chain sound maker thing out of a gumball-style vending machine and I pressed the button on it and it didn't make any noise. So I've been meaning to get batteries for this thing since I came back from Tokyo so I go to Radio Shack and tell the salesperson I need batteries for it and she looks at it and pulls out this little plastic tab sticking out of the back and it works. So I've had this noise maker thing for something like two and a half months and all I had to do was pull the tab out so the batteries would make contact...

Prospectus

user — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:11:49 +0000

So my first real draft of my prospectus was due last friday. I still haven't turned it in. I've got something but I still don't feel comfortable turning it in. I think the biggest problem is that the only time we read a prospectus is when we are writing one. So I don't really know what a prospectus actually looks like so I don't really know if I'm doing it correctly. grrrr..... I guess I'll hack around on it a bit more and email it off Sunday before I leave town. must resist urge to start playing new game...

I'm done with it even if it isn't done!

user — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 02:58:29 +0000

So I turned in my draft of my prospectus a week and a half late. Oh well. I did a bit of pruning and adding to the blogroll so check it out. I always like checking out new gaming blogs and it is sad when one stops updating or disappears. There are a couple I left on the list that haven't updated for about 6 months and I just can't make myself delete them. I keep hoping that they will update again some time. I know I've gone a month or two without updating so I try to cut them some slack. I've been blogging on my own website since January of 2004 and on on geocities since around mid-2002 and I know it is tough to keep updating so I'm hoping that the blogs will come back to life. (which reminds me, I've got some old posts over on geocities somewhere I should import. I guess that is what winter break is for...)

Is the emotional content of videogames underrated?

user — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:30:44 +0000

For several years there has been that lingering question, "when will videogames make us cry?" and while I think that is a totally loaded question second only to "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" the ability of videogames to create emotional reactions in the players is something that a lot of people are concerned about. However, I have been wondering later if videogames are already causing players to feel emotions. Besides feelings of pride, joy, and frustration which we feel while playing, there is also the emotional attachment that we feel long after we have finished playing the game. I haven't played a Thief game since the last one came out in 2004 but I still have a strong attachment to those games and the character of Garrett. People have tons of Mario merchandise. Lara Croft was a huge phenomenon. While playing GTA: San Andreas I was pissed when the game forced me to detour away from the relationship between the main character and his friends when you were forced to flee from the city. I wanted to interact with them more, not go off and learn to fly a plane or deal with the running of a casino. Why else would the new game consoles have the ability to play old games? Why else would I still have my Atari? It is the emotional attachment to the games and the experiences we had playing them. While these aren't the same kind of emotions that we experience when watching some movie about someone dying of cancer just when they find the love of their life but it sticks with you and you feel attached to the game and the characters. Those are emotions of a different kind. Just because games aren't very good at making us cry doesn't mean that they can't make us feel something.

Start of the new semester

user — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:26:34 +0000

Once again another semester has started. This will probably be my last semester here at IU Bloomington since I've applied for a teaching fellowship at one of the satellite IU campuses (I've tentatively accepted an offer from one but the paperwork hasn't gone through I I'll wait to mention which one lest I jinx it!) Over the break I started playing a coupel games I thought I would mention. The first is probably not new to a lot of people: Peggle which is kind of a cross between Pachinko, The Price is Right's Plinko, and bumper pool. The next is probably less familiar but just as addictive to those of us that love FPS games and zombies: Zombie Master. There's also Zombie Panic but I've not gotten around to playing that yet. ZM is kind of a combination between a FPS and an RTS with the zombie master playing from overhead god mode and using a control panel to spawn computer controlled zombies. I think I like it partially because of the zombies but also because the fact that they are zombies means that they are mostly slow which means that it isn't really an advantage to use hacks or cheats and you don't die right away from a headshot like you do in Counter-Strike. There also isn't much trashtalking because you are all on one team and the zm will be someone different next round. The final game I'm playing is probably the most obscure: You Are Empty. It is a Russian-made FPS that is set in the 50s-era Soviet Union (what is it with Eastern Europeans making FPSs lately?) It features mentally ill or handicapped people wearing head restraints and straitjackets running at you with sharp sticks, firefighters with flamethrowers, and ten feet tall killer chickens. To the best of my knowledge it is a 100% accurate depiction of life in Soviet Russia... I have no idea what the name of it means but it is like 90% of the way to a decent game. It looks kind of like Half-Life 2 with the setting of a worn down deteriorating city but it lacks the Source engine's physics or ability to pick as many things up. The main character is also the slowest character ever. He may be on crutches or in a wheelchair for all I can tell because when you are trying to run from a giant chicken you feel nothing but frustration. I wish they could give the company another 6 months to polish it (perhaps they need to Polish it to make it up to snuff?) or that someone would remake it for a better engine. It wasn't all great gaming over the semester break though as I did experience one gaming-related heartache. I tried to play Bioshock but my videocard is only a shader model 2.0b card and it requires a 3.0 card. There is a hack to make it work with my card but it says it could take up to 15 minutes to load a level. I think I'll wait. Regardless, until I upgrade I'll have to start reading minimum system requirements. Nooooo...!!!! The horror! The horror!

the incestuous nature of the gaming blogs revealed

user — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:55:20 +0000

I've written about Jack Thompson a time or two and whenever I see a Jacko story posted I'm eager to see the latest of his shenanigans. I've even got a special search category for Jack Thompson stories on my google news papge. So imagine my delight when I hit up news.google this morning and see several stories about Take-Two suing Jack Thompson. Of those stories only one, kotaku, sources gamepolitics as the origin of the story. The date on that game politics story? March 18, 2007. As far as I can tell someone at Kotaku screwed up and the other sites just ran with it and neither credited Kotaku nor Gamepolitics as the source of the story. Before this i thought it was mainly just digg that attracted lame sites that lifted stories from websites, posted it on their own site without credit and tried to get pageviews but it looks like there are a lot of these crap sites out there. Is this what the gaming and tech blog world has come to? Are these stories all just simulacra that have no real origin or that have no originality to them? Not only are these sites lame for picking up on a months old story but they are also a signifier of the absent referent that the internet is in danger of becoming. Linking was make for a reason, people. Is the thought of getting some ad revenue so great that you won't take two seconds to read the entire story or at least link to the source of the article so that we can do your work for you and see if the article is valid or not. It is as if these blogs were some kind of game of telephone with one posting something then another reposting it with or without credit and then another reposting that story. Each adds their own details and soon a story from March becomes front page news on their website. Is this the death of the author? Or is it possible that the Cult of the Amateur really does exist and Andrew Keen isn't as wrong as everyone, myself included, seems to think he is? Noooooooo!!!!!!!!

Is there a place where in-game advertising could work?

user — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:38:42 +0000

Our department has just had the 3rd and final candidate for our digital media position come in. I've got no special insight as to who, if anyone, might get the job and I'm not going to share my opinions on the matter. However, one of the candidates discussed mods. Like a lot of FPS players I play my fair share of mods. From Counter-Strike to Zombie Master I've spend hours playing fan made games (Yes I was playing CS long before Valve bought them. I still miss the VIP and Jailbreak modes!). I started thinking about the role of advertising in games. We all hate advertising. Why should we pay full price for a game only to have it plastered with ads? I also thought about some of the backlash to the news that Garry's Mod would start charging $9.95 for updates. I also thought about the fact that from a Marxist perspective the practice of having fans create mods for commercial games is kind of exploitative. The only reason why game makers encourage mods is so that it will get people to buy their game. So, like "crowd sourcing" and much of web 2.0, the corporations are getting rich off of the unpaid work of the fans. No wonder so many mods never come out. So I began to wonder, is there a solution? Would people accept ad supported free mods? I think it is a pretty good solution. Players still get free games. Mod makers get a little money for their efforts and they get some monetary incentive to keep working on their mod which might lead to more mods actually coming out and more timely releases which would make the fans happier. So would people accept ad supported mods? Is that a place where in-game ads might actually be accepted?

This is where I make the confession that removes any credibility I had left...

user — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:34:24 +0000

I don't get Team Fortress 2. Maybe it is because I haven't played enough of it but I don't see what is so great about it. You run around you get killed you respawn. I spend a lot more time playing Zombie Master than I do TF2. Also, when is Monolith going to sue for stealing not only the style but also the music from No One Lives Forever? I realize they probably don't have any basis for suing but, man, they should get a "special thanks to" credit or something. I know, I know, I've lost all cred. How do you think I feel? You can just stop reading this crap. I have to live it!

History is written by the Americans?

user — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:46:45 +0000

I'm putting together a syllabus for a videogame course and of course I'm going to include some history. Are there any videogame histories written from a non-USA perspective (that are in English)? I would like to see something that wasn't so USA-centric even if it is just a good medium length to long article.

Forget "Where's the Stephen King of Gaming?" Where's Stephen King's games?

user — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:51:44 +0000

I was reading another one of these articles about the Shakespeare or gaming or the Stephen King of gaming and I began to think: Why aren't there Stephen King videogames? Or at least games based on Stephen King books? Clive Barker has lent his name to a couple of games, Undying and Jericho, but why hasn't someone licensed Stephen King's work? He has lent his name to at least one software title, Stephen King's F13 (Gamespot has some images) but that was apparently some sort of screensaver-type thing and not an actual game. Moreover, why isn't there a John Grisham, Clive Cussler, or some other writers games? There have been games based on dead authors such as HP Lovecraft and Agatha Christie as well as literary characters such as Dracula and Sherlock Holmes (although those characters have been used by so many medium it is difficult to imagine that they wouldn't appear in videogames). Of course there have been games based on movies based on books too such as Tolkien and JK Rowling but I'm not sure if those count. Tom Clancy has made a lot of money from the Rainbow Six games an others. So why haven't other authors tried to get in on the act? They can't all be Luddites can they? I'm sure that someone has approached King about making a Shining or The Stand game but why didn't they go through. Certainly the task of converting a novel to a game would be really tough but Is HP Lovecraft's world can inspire a game couldn't King's? If Agatha Christie could inspire a game couldn't Sue Grafton? Where are the book-based games?

The Most Amazing Doom Mod EVAR!!!

user — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:35:30 +0000

This has to be the best Doom Mod ever made. My hat off to the genius who created this.

Playing the Atari Draws a Crowd

user — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:04:01 +0000

Playing the Atari Draws a Crowd

Playing a Wii also draws a crowd

user — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:05:15 +0000

Playing a Wii also draws a crowd

Videogame advertising in the news...

user — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:05:48 +0000

I have been meaning to write a post about my paper, "The Disappearance and Reappearance and Disappearance of the Player in Videogame Advertising that I wrote for the Digra conference last year. It has gotten a bit of a buzz lately (well as much buzz as a conference paper can get...) including almost making it into the "Game Studies Download of the top 10 academic papers. I made it to one of the "The 2008 'Shadow List' - The Top 10 Research Findings that We Couldn't Fit on our First Top 10 List." Before I could get around to tooting my own horn I read an article in the New York Times, "As Gaming Turns Social, Industry Shifts Strategies which talks about the increase of casual and social gaming. The part of the article that relates to my paper is this section:

Traditionally game advertisements, whether in print or on screen, have focused, naturally, on showing the game. But as it introduced the Wii, Nintendo devised a marketing breakthrough: Rather than show the game, show the players. In an entirely counterintuitive, brilliant move, most of Nintendo’s ads are now shot from the perspective of the television back out at the audience, showing families and groups of friends having fun together. Nintendo realized that emphasizing the communal experience of sharing interactive entertainment can be more captivating than the image of some monster, gangster or footballer on the screen.

However, as those who have either read my paper or were around when the home videogame market was starting will know, this simply isn't true. The early ads for videogames were all about showing the audience. Here are two pictures, one from a 2600 commercial and one from a Wii commercial that shows just how similar the two campains were:
However, the Atari ads went even further because at least a few of them showed people actually plugging the machines into the electric outlet. The player has reappeared in videogame advertising time and time again. Every time the games introduce a new way of interacting with the machines then the advertisers will resurrect images of the player as an easy and effective way of demonstrating how to play the system.

Wall Plug

user — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:07:53 +0000

Wall Plug

Spring Break....

user — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:08:30 +0000

Yay spring break.... I'm going to sit on my butt so long I get bed sores and play a whole lot of games. Right now Zombie Master is still a favorite. I'm also going old school with Zelda: Link to the Past and Defender of the Crown (NES version). If I can clear some room on my hard drive I might get to Bioshock too this week. Who needs human contact?

de Certeau plays Zelda

user — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:13:59 +0000

The only two Zelda games I really ever played were A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. I probably played the first Zelda but not too much. I've never finished any of the Zelda games. Way back in the 90s when Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was the latest Zelda game (and this was still 93-94 or something like it so the game was already a year or two old), someone in the dorms had a SNES, a system I never had, and we played Link to the Past as a group. Then we got to a part that we couldn't get past. You had to get to this other cave and we couldn't figure it out. This was before gamefaqs was around and none of us had internet-connected computers at the time so it was the dark ages and we gave up. Then around 98 or 99 I was living with some people and one of the had an N64 and Zelda Ocarina of Time. They had one of the gameguide books for it. We were getting pretty far in the game and then the guy who owned the N64 up and moved out, taking the N64 with him. Bastard! So new I've gotten around to downloading a SNES emulator for my softmodded xbox and am hip deep in playing A Link to the Past. In playing it I'm realizing, not for the first time, that my sense of the direction or perhaps more accurately my sense of how geographic locations are connected is kind of weird. I like to think that I'm pretty good with directions. I only got lost twice in Tokyo on my own and one time I was suspicious of the direction I was headed as soon as I got off the subway and the other time I should have just kept going a couple more blocks before I turned. But playing Zelda and wandering around in the dungeons? I got no clue. I might as well stop looking at the tv because I've no idea how I end up in one room or where I'm going in the dungeons. Similarly when I'm in the open world I'm constantly overshooting or totally missing the mark when I'm trying to get somewhere. Of course being the academic dork I am I can't help but wonder WWdCD? What Would de Certeau Do? There's some scholarship out there about de Certeau and gaming but not as much as you with think. The importance of maps in videogames would seemingly make his writings about maps, directions, and architecture would seemingly make a good connection with map-based RPGs. Someone go write more of that stuff so I can read it, OK?

Farewell to Break...

user — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:11:42 +0000

Appropriately as my spring break ends I finished Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It only took me something over a decade. Maybe one of these days I'll finish Super Mario Brothers... It was fun but like the Final Fantasy games I don't really feel any need to go on to finish Ocarina of time. Maybe at some point I will but not now. Needs more guns.

That's good readin'

user — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:52:26 +0000

If you haven't been reading gamepolitics.com's posts of the transcripts of Jack Thompson's Bar Trial, you have been missing some hilarious stuff including such jems as:

JT: Do you recall my cursing at you? CJ: I do not recall you cursing… JT: In fact, I told you to “go fuck yourself,” didn’t I?

JT: What’s the cut-off on how many faxes? MOORE: Oh, I don’t know. You reached it, whatever it is. JT: Anybody else ever reach it? MOORE: No… Not close… You ruined my fax machine. JT: I ruined your fax machine? MOORE: It quit. JT: Did it. MOORE: Yes. JT: What kind was it?

SMITH: Mr. Thompson, I’m going to ask you to step back. Step back. JT: I’ll step back when the court asks me to. DT: Let’s do this. We have a podium that’s pushed over… Let’s have all parties utilize the podium. SMITH: Thank you, Your Honor. DT: All right. JT: What were you afraid of, Mr. Smith? DT: Okay. That’s inappropriate. JT: No. It isn’t inappropriate, Judge. I don’t mean to argue with you, but I’d like to know what Mr. Smith is concerned about. DT: Mr. Thompson, I’m going to ask you to please utilize the podium as it is -

This is stuff you can't make up. This cries out for dramatic reenactment.

Getting ahead of myself while getting behind...

user — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:44:51 +0000

I'm working on getting a syllabus together for my class on videogame culture that I"m going to be teaching in the fall. Should be pretty fun. I'm also getting to teach a course on action movies. I'm going to make them watch Tokyo Drift. Ha! However, I'm also trying to finish a draft of my prospectus that was due two days ago. And there's a LAN party this weekend so no work done this weekend -- except for you know, the work of playing games as part of my dissertation... And I'm grading stuff. And I'm going to get even more stuff to grade tomorrow! You would think it was part of my job to teach and grade or something! Although... perhaps I should remember this grading stuff when I'm making up this syllabus!

Lan party aftermath

user — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:49:35 +0000

So I spent Saturday at the local gaming club's LAN party. From noon Saturday until noon Sunday. OK, I didn't make it until noon Sunday. I left at 6am. I guess I'm getting old. I had another reason to think I'm getting old at the LAN party. Dell was there with some college gaming league thing and if you signed up they gave you a tshirt and some other swag. As part of the sign up they wanted my birthday. It was then that I knew I was old. Why? Because the years on the form didn't go back far enough for me to enter my year of birth... The lan party was pretty fun other than that. I played in a DotA tournament and lost in the first round. I played in a Call of Duty 4 tournament and lost in the first round. I played in a Counter-Strike: Source tournament and lost in the first round. I played in a Team Fortress 2 tournament and ...actually won. I got lucky enough to be on a team with someone who was really really good and we mopped the floor with everyone. I also won a videocard in a drawing. It is a pci-express card and my motherboard only has agp. However, it turns out that when I got hom and set my computer up again it didn't start for some reason. So I guess I'm going to be putting that videocard to use sooner than I anticipated if I can't get my current system back up and running (I booted into vista using my second hard drive but even if the main drive is plugged in the system won't boot. It is SATA though so once booted into Vista and I plug it in the drive shows up so I was able to get my documents off it so that is a sign that it might be fixable. However, the bios is acting weird so I don't know if I trust it or not). Anyway... it was some good videogame culture and a good time all around. I didn't do any interviews or anything but it was some good old fashioned ethnographic participant/observation.

More LAN Party

user — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:42:04 +0000

Perhaps videogame culture is changing. At the LAN Party I went to last weekend there was something new there. There were women! At least 4 of them and they didn't know each other or anything. It was pretty amazing.

When Did Videogame Ads Get Such Odd music?

user — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:28:08 +0000

Once upon a time you could count on videogame ads to either have agro angry rock in it or pretentious orchestral music. Not any more. They have weird music in them. The first one that I noticed was the Gears of War Trailer featuring Mad World. Then Lost Odyssey had Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit Now Grand Theft Auto 4 has Miles Davis' Move Maybe it is just me but it is just kind of odd to hear Miles Davis in commercials for a videogame.

Despite the best intentions gaming the library initiatives can have some odd results

user — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:41:32 +0000

Apparently today is "gaming in your library day." While there is some controversy over having games at the library, I'm all for it. After all libraries have had movies and music for years so why not games? While the university has had little extension library things in the dorms that rented out games and movies for years it is only in the last few months that they main library has begun to rent out games. They have a small collection of xbox, 360, PS2, PS3, Gamecube, and Wii games. Imagine my surprise though when I notice a floppy disk version of Dig Dug: Then I took a closer look at it and not only is it a floppy disk but it is for the Commodore 64! I can only imagine where they found that disk gathering dust back on some shelf somewhere. If that weren't interesting enough, I was in the library today and noticed two games had been added to the collection: H.E.R.O. for the Atari 2600 and Ghostbusters for the NES. I can only imagine how many other games they have floating around in the system somewhere. Of course it isn't unusual that they would have some unusual items in a system as large as IU's library but it does seem kind of unusual that they would put them out on the shelf. It makes me feel like hooking up my Atari and NES just so I can check out a couple of these!

Ban These Evil (Video) Games (Ads)?

user — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:14:22 +0000

The UK's Daily Mail once ran the front page headline, "Ban These Evil Games" but apparently the world of videogame culture is so vile and evil that we need to go beyond baning the games and taking up some sort of tobacco and alcohol style regulation of advertising and not even advertise games on public transportation. Or at least that is what some would have happen apparently. With the imminent release of Grand Theft Auto 4, the advertising is in full swing including advertising on buses and bus stops. Now anyone on the inside of videogames and gaming culture would not be surprised that good old Jack Thompson doesn't like the GTA4 ads but he isn't alone. At least one local television station has complained about the ads and gotten them removed. Of course the main rallying cry is "Think of the children!" and it isn't just some reactionary "Vidja games am the eval!" moral panic, right? Because they would be upset no matter what violent (or uberviolent or ultraviolent or megaviolent or whatever word you want ot make up) and designed for adults form of entertainment was advertised on busses and other public places where children could see them, right? Right... It is funny how all of these moral crusaders seemed to be looking the other way when The Sopranos was advertised on the side of a bus with a hand holding a handgun in place of the "r" in March. Or when The Sopranos was advertised by having a fake arm dangle out of the trunk of taxis implying that there was someone locked in the trunk. Or when The Sopranos rented out space in shoe store windows and placed "cement shoes" in the display window. Or when The Sopranos put stickers on taxis in Scotland that looked like bullet holes and blood. But I'm sure that such oversites are just isolated incidents and these people really have the best interests of children in mind and not simply some moral panic, crusade, or ignorance of videogame culture or anything like that...

First I defend GTA IV and now I Disagree with Those who "Defend" it... I'm complex...

user — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:19:32 +0000

So in my last post I criticized those who thought that Grand theft Auto 4 ads were so horrible they should be removed even though they didn't have any problem with much more explicit ads for Sopranos. Now I'm making a post criticizing those who criticized those who criticized GTA IV. Boingboing.net the self-proclaimed directory of wonderful things has posted a link and summary of the link titled, "Grand Theft Are You Fcking Kidding Me. The link is to someone named Susannah Breslin who criticizes Jack Thompson and the blog Feministing for criticizing GTA IV. Now I'm certainly not concerned about someone criticizing Jacko. And while I usually agree with Feministing I'm not so upset with someone criticizing them either. What I'm upset about is the way in which Breslin attempts to refute Feministing. Feministing wrote, "It is no question that GTA is merely reflective of the bigger misogyny embedded in capitalist patriarchy, but the question is why is a game that depicts such violence towards women so popular?" How did Breslin respond? She wrote, "Jesus Christ, if this is what degrees in gender studies hath wrought, polysyllabic bloggers still carping about the patriarchy, please fucking stop handing them out." Then she followed up with "Did we not hunt down all the feminists and shut them up already?" and argues that Feministing is wrong by asserting that men treat women like crap and like prostitutes (implying that all men do that and not just some) and writing that "men seek out prostitutes because prostitutes let men express themselves ruthlessly. With utter impunity. Because if you pay her, you don't have to feel guilty" as if all of that proves Feministing wrong. My reaction to this post is in no way a condemnation of GTA. I don't have a current gen system so I can't play GTA 4. I have played the previous GTA games and they are, like R rated films, meant for adults. The play mechanic of running over people, including prostitutes, is way over hyped by the sensationalistic media and that is not even to mention that ignorant people keep claiming that there is rape in Grand Theft Auto 3 when there is no such thing. My reaction is a condemnation of summary dismissal of raising questions about what the depiction of women in the game means and the implication that not only is it an accurate depiction of the world but that all men are like that and that we should just shrug our shoulders in response and say "that's just the way the world is." In all honestly, I'm not really concerned that someone posted some off-based defense of GTA IV. I'm saddened that Boingboing would link to this post, seemingly without irony. Really? This is what Boingboing things is a wonderful thing? I thought they were better than this. Edit: So apparently not only is Boingboing anti-feminist and anti-intellectual, they don't like criticism either because one of my posts got censored. That's two strikes...

Is "you need to play it on the original system" the new "you need to see it on the big screen?"

user — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:02:32 +0000

I saw a post over at Cyberzel's Mind discussing, "Game Preservation and it got me thinking about the topic. With the popularity of the new console's online stores and emulation of older consoles, is it ok to play emulators? I've long played Nintendo games on my computer and I have played Super Mario Bros.3 and Legend of Zelda Link to the Past on my X-Box. I never really thought about emulation and I never had any qualms about emulation until recently. I'm going to be teaching a videogame course next semester and I found myself buying an Atari 2600 so that my students could play the games on the original system -- particularly paddle games like Pong or Warlords. Not only did I buy a 2600, I actually bought 2 since the first one I bought didn't work (It did come with a bunch of games in the boxes though so that was pretty cool). So clearly I have some kind of thought process going on which says something akin to "these damn kids these day and their emulators! Why back in my day we had cartridges and our controllers only had one button and that's the way we liked it!" On some level I'm saying, "It is ok for me to play old games on an emulator because I know what it was like to play them on the original machine. You need to learn what it is like to play the real thing!" It is more nuanced than that though since if there was an easy way to use a 2600 controller on modern computers then I would do it(there was a 2600 to USB adapter but it doesn't seem to be sold any more). So is the actual console irrelevant and the controller is actually the important part? Perhaps for me at least. Of course that doesn't explain why I don't want to buy one of those Flashback units...

Do I Get Credibility Back For Liking TF2 Now?

user — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:33:05 +0000

A while back I wrote that I didn't get Team Fortress 2. Well, now I do. I guess I was just playing as the wrong class. I started off playing as a soldier and I didn't like it. I have since discovered my inner pyro and I'm loving it. Does this mean that if I reinstall Second life I might like it too? I shiver to think...

favicon.ico

user — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:17:27 +0000

Screwed by Securom once again

user — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:36:23 +0000

Once again I've installed a crack when a game wouldn't work because of securom. This time it was Bioshock. I found a cheap copy on ebay and it arrived so I installed it. Unlike other securom games this time it actually installed. But they added some crappy online activation and it wouldn't activate so I couldn't play it. So I go online and 5 minutes later I've downloaded the crack and I can now play the game I paid for. Of course I could have found it faster if I had only wanted to download the entire game and not just the crack because there are tons of cracked isos online. So copy protection is good how? It only keeps me, who pays for the games, from actually playing the games and doesn't seem to do anything from keeping the people who want to download it without paying for it. Thanks for nothing securom...

Old Videogame Magazines are interesting

user — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:40:07 +0000

As part of my gaming research I've started looking at older gaming magazines. I always heard about how great Next Generation magazine was but I never read it. So I got some on ebay and I've only gone through 5-6 issues and already found some really interesting things. One of those interesting things was in issue 48. In that issue they interview Gabe Newell and on page 143 of that issue they ask Newell about things he wanted in Half-Life that didn't make it in and he mentioned something about Half-Life that I never heard before. Newell said,

"Probably the biggest aspect from a story perspective was Gordon's wife. She actually was a co-worker who was in the lab with Gordon when everything starts to go to hell. Unfortunately, she didn't work with some other parts of the game, and Marc Laidlaw had to convince me that leaving her out would make the rest of the story stronger."

So Gordan Freeman originally had a wife! I wonder if they plan on bringing that story element back in a future installment of Half-Life? Unfounded speculation might guess ask if perhaps we have already met her but she doesn't work for Black Mesa?

Florida's long history of anti-videogame violence advocates

user — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:46:22 +0000

Today is when we are all supposed to learn the fate of Jack Thompson as Judge Tunis is expected to issue her recommendation on penalties for Thompson's professional misconduct. It seems somehow appropriate then that today we look back at another Florida personality who was also supported legislation against selling violent videogames to minors. From pages 16-18 of the May 1998 issue of Next Generation magazine comes the story "Outlawed in Orlando?"

Two politicians in Florida, Representative Barry Silver (Dem.) and Senator John Grant (Rep.), are promoting two bills that would "prohibit the public display of ... videogames displaying graphic violence" throughout the state of Florida. Although the bills have a long way to go before becoming law, the IDSA (Interactive Digital Software Association), the videogame industry's Washington D.C.-based watchdog organization, warns that Florida garners face a "very real threat" of widespread restrictions and maybe even a total ban. And if one state successfully adopts such a policy, others may follow. The bills are primarily targeted at coin-op games featuring violent content "including, but not limited to: decapitation; dismemberment; repeated instances of blood-letting; or grotesque cruelty." Grant and Silver want all coin-ops that feature such "graphic violence" removed from public areas, including theater lobbies and family arcades. "We're taking this very seriously," says Elliott Portnoy, counsel to the AAMA (American Amusement Machine Association), the coin-op industry's trade organization. But what makes these bills threatening to all gamers are their vague and loose wording. Gail Markels, the IDSA's general counsel, warns that, if passed, the law could be used to remove boxed games from store shelves, outlaw titles such as Mario and Crash Bandicoot, and even ban anyone under the age of 18 from entering an Electronics Boutique store. "We are always concerned when legislation is proposed," warns Markels, "but these Florida bills are especially troubling because they are not limited by any strict definitions of what the proposed new law could do." The bills, tentatively labeled the Children’s Protection from Violence Act, take two virtually identical forms: Senate Draft SB696 and Florida House Bill HB3341. To take a step closer to becoming law, the bills next have to be approved by committee, and this is where videogame trade bodies such as the IDSA, the AAMA, and the AMOA (Amusement & Music Operators Association) are targeting their defense. "On a lobbying level, our response to the bill is essentially two-fold," explains Markels. "First, we would educate the committee about the industry's efforts to self regulate. The videogame industry already adheres to a voluntary system of ratings and has been applauded by politicians such as Senator Lieberman, who called the ESRB rating system the most comprehensive rating system in the entertainment media, and child advocacy experts such as Peggy Charren. As a result, we don't believe that legislation is necessary because the industry has already stepped up to the plate. Second, prior attempts to restrict the availability of violent content to minors or adults have been
H 3341 Violent Video Game/Public Exhibition H 3341 GENERAL BILL by Silver, (CO-SPONSORS) Bloom; Frankel; Betancourt; Fischer; Murman Violent Video Game/Public Exhibition; provides definitions; prohibits public showing, display, or other exhibition of video games containing graphic violence in specified places; prohibits person who operates place of business where video games containing graphic violence are shown, displayed, or exhibited from knowingly permitting or allowing any person under 18 years of age to patronize, visit, or loiter in such place of business; provides penalties; provides applicability, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: Contingent.
stricken by the Supreme Court, which ruled that such efforts are unconstitutional." Supporting Markels, claim is the 1989 Missouri case of the VSDA (Video Software Dealers Association) versus Webster. In this instance the state of Missouri attempted to pass a law prohibiting minors from renting or buying videocassettes containing violent content. The Federal Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, it was rejected, and the state of Missouri was ordered to pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees of $200,000. It’s worth noting that the content guidelines found on videocassette packaging — and even the ratings allocated to movies playing in theaters — are not backed up by any kind of law. Stores and movie theaters choose to enforce these voluntary guidelines, but they don,t have to. In fact, legislative attempts to require the enforcement of the MPAA rating system have been declared unconstitutional. "The only type of content that can be subject to across-the- board restrictions is that which is deemed sexually obscene or harmful to minors in a sexual context," Markels explains. The AAMA's Portnoy concurs with Markels' legal analysis and concludes that the game industry’s first line of defense has to include "convincing the decision makers in Florida that there,s no way this bill can pass constitutional muster." Bolstering this line of defense, John Fithian, legal counsel for the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), has pledged that his organization will help fight the bill with financial support, and Richard Holley, vice president of the AMOA, states, "We will offer every drop of support we have in .. doing whatever we have to do." One of the first steps was commissioning 200 posters for Florida coin-op locations, aimed at nurturing support and recognition for the parental guidance ratings that already accompany every title. As Next Generation goes to press, the situation can be summarized as the game industry having effectively circled the wagons and established its defensive strategy. We'll report developments as they happen — but for now, there seems little threat of any immediate action. The proposition of the bill has been accompanied by the traditional huffing and puffing of politicians with honorable goals but a slender grip on the facts. Next Generation spoke to House Representative Barry Silver, co- proposer of the Florida bills, and the conversation went like this: NG: Please can you explain the thinking behind your proposed Protection of Children from Violence bill? Rep. Silver. Certainly. The bill is trying to allow our society to protect itself and its young people from the scourge of the rampant violence that permeates our society. NG: A noble goal, I’m sure everyone would wish for less violence in our society. But how would your bill help achieve this? [Pause] Rep. Silver: The bill would prohibit the display of graphic video violence in any public facility where children — people aged 17 or under — are allowed to congregate. NG: OK, but how will this reduce the level of violence in society? [Pause] Rep. Silver There’s a direct correlation between the viewing of violence and engagement in violence. This correlation is not 100%, in other words not everyone who views violence will act violently, but some will. Therefore, it is beyond dispute that because of the pervasiveness of violence in our media, it is transferring to our society, people are dying, and our communities are not as safe as they used to be. NG: Do you have any proof of this? Rep. Silver What do you mean, proof? NG: Do you have any proof that people who are exposed to fictional violence in the media actually become more likely to commit acts of real violence in the real world? Rep. Silver There is plenty of proof. There is hard scientific evidence to support this. There are no researchers or experts who would dispute this. NG: Um, I don’t think that this is actually the case. Can you cite any research or any experts who support your claim that your theory is, in fact, "hard scientific fact"? [Pause] Rep. Silver I don’t have anything in front of me or in my office. But I have professors and experts who will testify when the bill reaches the committee. You must have heard of all these studies that quite clearly show that when a group of children watch a violent movie, they behave in a more violent manner afterwards than a group of children who have watched a nonviolent movie. NG: Um, no. I’ve heard of lots of studies that show that when watching violent movies children become excited and their adrenaline levels rise. This then, in the short term, leads them to become more physically active and "boisterous," sure. But there's a big difference between this and proof that they, in the long term, become more violent individuals. Besides, watching a football game or WWF has exactly the same effect. [Pause] Rep. Silver The real harm here isn’t that you get an adrenaline rush. The real harm is that gradually you get less and less of an adrenaline rush. Kids become desensitized. The real harm is that violence becomes more acceptable. The thrill that people might have one time experienced by watching violence becomes lessened with each exposure, and eventually, the only way to recapture this thrill is to engage in the real thing. And this means real violence in real life aimed against people or animals. NG: Again, do you have any proof? Rep. Silver Kids who play these games grow to feel that they are experts in this kind of violence. They then seek to test their skills in the real world. There’s lots of anecdotal evidence. Just recently there was the terrible case of a high-school kid who walked into a classroom with a gun and shot several of his classmates. Afterwards, he said that he had gotten the idea from a movie. There is too much of this kind of anecdotal evidence to ignore. NG: That’s a terrible story. Professor Henry Jenkins of MIT believes that news footage or documentary footage of real-world violence is a lot more damaging to kids. And taking your argument to its logical extreme, can we take it that you would support banning the Bible or outlawing Disney movies? Both contain often extreme violence ...
"Kids who play these games grow to feel that they are experts in this kind of violence" Barry Silver, House representative, Florida
[Pause] Reps Silver: Merely because there may be many types of violence that might be dangerous to children doesn't mean that we shouldn't act in specific areas. But certainly, if it's proven that exposure to nature documentaries and news footage is dangerous, then maybe we should be more cautious. But you must remember that news footage serves some public purpose, and videogames do not. Also, when a child watches news, he is just a passive observer. When he plays a videogame, he is a participant. NG: Moving on, a couple of legal experts have told us that they believe your bill will prove to be unconstitutional. Something about the First Amendment ... Rep. Silver: No, this is not unconstitutional. I practice constitutional law, I am aware of the issues. I believe that the Constitution does not prevent society from protecting itself by taking reasonable measures against the scourge of violence. NG: Have you sought the opinion of an attorney general to confirm this? Rep. Silver: No, I have not. NG: Are you aware of the 1989 Missouri case of the VSDA versus Webster? The state was fined $200,000 after attempting to pass an unconstitutional law prohibiting the sale of violent videos to minors. Rep. Silver: Wow. That's amazing. [Pause]. I don't understand how that could have occurred. I don't know Missouri law, but I do know this: In Florida and in every other state, it is constitutional and it is permissible for states to move against the exposure of sexual content to minors. I happen to believe that violence is equally, if not more damaging than sexually explicit material. Therefore, if it is permissible to act against one, surely it should be permissible to act against the other? If the studies indicate that children act out what they see in the media, which presents the greater danger to society? Children acting out acts of sexual explicity or extreme violence? NG: It seems the focus of your bill is aimed at coin-op games in public places. But the wording is a little ambiguous, and many people worry that the law could be extended to include home videogames for sale in stores. Is this your intention? Rep. Silver. No, I hadn't originally intended to do this. So no, I don't think the law will stretch this far. If it's just a box on a shelf, then I don't see it being affected by this bill. But this is something for me to look into and something to consider. NG: Have you anything else to add? Rep. Silver: So far it seems that those who oppose this proposal are the people who believe that corporations have an absolute right to pervert and pollute the minds of young people for profit. I don't happen to share this view. Discussing this issue with such people as Mr. Silver is always disquieting because his intentions are, no doubt, honorable. Furthermore, most people in the videogame industry, Next Generation staff included, feel uncomfortable citing merely a "lack of hard evidence" as defense against accusations that violent videogames contribute to increasing violence in society. It's a defensive stance, and it sounds worrying, similar to the, "There's no unequivocal proof!" argument behind which the cigarette companies desperately hid for so many years. But whereas it's long been obvious to anyone with a modicum of common sense that smoking cigarettes is bad for one's health, the videogame/violence issue is a lot more complicated — and it's up to magazines like Next Generation to make people aware of the broader questions: Does violence in the media cause violence or merely reflect it? Do human beings naturally have a certain amount of violence in their nature, violence that will always find an outlet no matter what society may do to suppress it? Could videogames actually be a harmless, safe outlet for violent urges that otherwise may be directed at real people? The fact of the matter is that no one knows for sure. Certainly, it's obvious that the likes of House Representative Silver, while with noble intent, are simply offering knee-jerk reactions to a big, complicated problem they don't fully understand. MIT Professor Henry Jenkins (interviewed in NG 29) offers an alternative perspective. "The studies seem to suggest that children at an early age make meaningful distinctions between fiction and nonfiction," he points out. "The violence that really disturbs them is the violence they can't break down, the violence that they see as real. This means that the type of media violence that is worst for children is the nature documentaries in which predators eat their prey, or documentaries about [violent] historical events — and yet this is the stuff that teachers, educators, and media reformers think would be good TV for kids." "Besides, "Jenkins offers, "trying to stop children's access to violent imagery in our culture is like trying to empty the Atlantic Ocean with a spoon. You just can't do it. Violence is a part of who we are. Violence is so pervasive throughout childhood culture that it's foolish to think you can stop it. If you are going to go down that path, then let's get rid of all fairy stories, let's get rid of Shakespeare. Why don't we rewrite the Bible so Cain and Abel talk things out?" He has a point, and it's only reasonable to conclude that — ultimately — the jury's still out on this one. And while we wait for concrete proof either way, shouldn't individuals and parents have a right to choose for themselves? The videogame industry has already adopted a voluntary ratings system designed to give parents the opportunity to make informed choices. Congress is happy with it, child advocacy groups are happy with it, the industry itself is happy with it, and even good of Senator Lieberman's happy with it — and we all know how hard he is to please.
"I happen to believe that violence is equally, if not more damaging than sexually explicit material" Barry Silver, House representative, Florida "Why don't we rewrite the Bible so Cain and Abel work things out?" Henry Jenkins, professor, MIT

Updated wordpress

user — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:40:57 +0000

I just went through the (at least for me) scary process of updating wordpress to the latest version. Luckily it worked pretty flawlessly. I'm hoping to get around to redesigning the template at some point in the next month or two. If anything seems wonky let me know.

There are different kinds of mods. Do we need more precise terms?

user — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:33:38 +0000

There are mods and then there are mods. Sure the general definition, say the wikipedia one, of the term mod fits a lot of them out there. Whether it is something like Counter-Strike which started off as a mod and introduces new gameplay styles or something like Minerva which is a single player mod for Half-Life 2 that could fairly easily fit into the world of Half-Life. Then there are unofficial patches like those for Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines. One one hand we have the creation of new content and on the other we have the fixing of content. Recently, however, I ran into something that is somewhere in between. I bought Resident Evil 4 for PC a few months ago but only started playing it recently. I took so long to play it because I had heard that it was an inferior port from the console versions. However, then I ran across a website for Resident Evil 4 mods. Now they call them mods but are they really? What I downloaded was a texture pack with textures from the Gamecube version but also a few newly made textures. Is it fixing the game like an unofficial patch? Is it creating new content? I don't know. I'm also curious as to why they go to this trouble. I'm glad they do so I can get a better experience playing the game but I'm just not sure what is in it for them? I would write some more about it but I've got to go play some more...

Who says movie-based videogames are forgettable?

user — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:58:00 +0000

Is it wrong that while rewatching the original Jurassic Park movie I kept thinking about the Sega Genesis version of the game and not the first time I actually saw the movie?

Spore is the new Black & White

user — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:57:02 +0000

I know I'm not the only one who doesn't really get Spore but I have serious doubts as to whether or not this game is going to be any good. I fell fo rthe hype with Black & White but it was a better idea than a game. I'm not making the same mistake twice. I'm guessing that Spore is a better idea than game. I guess it will appeal to the same people who like the Sims but don't see what is so great about it. Once you create your creature then what? You set it loose and...? That is not my idea of a good time, baby...

Moving Means Less Time for Blog Posts

user — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:30:21 +0000

I'm moving out of Bloomington and up to Kokomo in August so I've been pretty busy packing things, selling books I don't want to move and generally recycling and throwing out things I don't want. So I haven't had much time to blog lately. I've been playing TF2 and a couple other things but nothing spectacular. More posts in a couple weeks...

Big Lots > Gamestop

user — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:58:38 +0000

I'm a lover of Big Lots which, despite its slogan, "Brand Name. Closeout Prices." basically sells crap that other stores couldn't sell. One of my most prized possessions is a can of Steven Segal Energy Drink that I got for 50¢. I am moving so I need to make sure that all the lightbulbs in my old apartment work so that I don't get charged for them. I figured that Big Lots would be a good place for cheap highly inefficient light bulbs. Well, I didn't find light bulbs but I did find some sweet computer games. I got City of Villains for $4 and some random FPS game for $4 too. I also got the Species Trilogy for $7. Gamestop and EB Games are dead to me. Big Lots is my videogame store now.

LAN Party Massacre -- Finally a film I can get excited about

user — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:27:38 +0000

Coming in 2009 is LAN Party Massacre. I can't wait. Check out the trailer on the site. It features a guy wearing a glove and I can only hope that there is some reference to the Power Glove.

Tetris From Russia and First-Person Shooter Documentary

user — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:40:16 +0000

As part of the class on videogames I'm teaching I am going to have my students watch a couple videogame documentaries. Instead of converting them myself I thought I would search for them online. The first one, Tetris: From Russia With Love has been split into several parts and put on youtube. Because it is on youtube I'm not sure how long it will be before they take it down. The other one is one called First Person Shooter that I don't think ever aired anywhere besides Canada. I had a Canadian friend's parents record it for me when it was on. Luckilly, it has been posted on video.google.ca. Unlike fellow Google site youtube, this video seems to have been up there for a couple years (so I'm not breaking any new ground here) so it doesn't seem to be in as much danger of going away. Regardless, I thought I would go ahead and post the links for them here so that others (besides my students) can watch them

Videogame Ethnography Class Syllabus

user — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:22:35 +0000

The semester here at IUK has started and, with the exception of food poisoning, things have been going pretty well. I thought I might as well post my syllabus for the gaming class I'm teaching in case any one care. The class is actually in a computer lab which is nice so that we can play games. Because my diss is about FPS games we are going to be playing FPS games in class. Valve has a special educational program that seems to be designed for game design classes because it gives access to the editors but it also gives students access to all the Half-Life 2 games including CS and TF2. Because it is ethnographic in focus each week the students have a journal due which is just a one to two page reflection on their playing. It is especially interesting to watch the students that have never played a computer FPS try to navigate through the game. Eventually I hope we will be able to play TF2 in class to get some comparison between single and multiplayer gaming. So here's the syllabus:

	topic	Assignments due that day
Tues Aug 26	Class intro Will introduce course concepts and assignments. Topic: What is a game‌ What is ethnography‌ Begins an introduction of the concept of ethnography and the notion of participant observation.
Thurs Aug 28	Description In class exercise on thick description and observation. describing versus telling involving the senses in the writing self-reflection	Horace Miner "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" Pat Hughes "The Sacred Rac" http://www.drabruzzi.com/sacred_rac.html Boellstorff, Tom. "A Ludicrous Discipline‌ Ethnography and Game Studies." Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 29-35. For a background on the games we will be playing, also read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(computer_gaming) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_Classic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_2 Play Zork. available at http://www.inthe70s.com/games/adventure/zork.shtml http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/ http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/
Tues Sep 2	Thick Description	Geertz, Thick Description Gamespot history of video games, read up until 1992 and skim the rest http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hov/index.html Pong story main page, http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm William Higinbotham article http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp Play Spacewar http://spacewar.oversigma.com/ Videogame Explosion intro and part 1 pages xiii-28
Thurs Sep 4	Videogame History Starting with the notion of "first" videogame we will examine the notions of building a canon of videogame landmarks. Who gets to be "first" and why‌ We will also examine the notion of what is a game, and what is a videogame.	Videogame Explosion part 2 p. 29-66, 75-80, 91-98, 103-106 Williams, Dmitri. "Why Game Studies Now‌ Gamers Don't Bowl Alone." Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 13-16.
Tues Sep 9	Videogame history 2 Videogame advertising through the ages will be discussed as wil the notions of building of an audience. Comparisons between early games and current games will be made and the reasons behind the changes will be discussed.	Game Over chapters 1-5
Thur Sep 11	Tetris and Casual Games Play Tetris and go to games.yahoo.com and play a couple puzzle games.	Videogame Explosion 107-126, 151-193, 203-228 Watch Tetris - From Russia With Love -- available on course website or bring a blank dvd and I will copy it for you.
Tues Sep 16	Test 1 Test one will be designed not only to ensure that students have a basic grasp of the history of videogames, as well as an understanding of ethnography. Moreover, the test will be intended to see if students are able to interrogate the process of canon creation and why the technological developments are of significance. Test format will consist of ten short answer and three essay questions.
Thur Sep 18	Game Studies -- preliminary concepts Now that we have established a common ground, we will move into the theories that make up game studies. Starting with Poole's Trigger Happy, we will begin to explore soem of the fundamental concepts of videogame studies and explore issues of medium specificity.	Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Arcade Pub., 2000. Chapters 1, 3, and 4. "Are Games Art‌" Kuro5hin.org. Sep 10, 2002 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/10/72851/0039 Read the main story and a few of the longer comments. Look for the commonalities among the responses. Young, Bryan-Mitchell. "Why Does it Matter If They are Art‌" http://popularculturegaming.com/archives/000023.html
Tues Sep 23	Continuing introductory concepts	Poole, Steven. Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Arcade Pub., 2000. Chapters 5, 6, 8-10.
Thur Sep 25	Mods, Makers, and Movies Discussing fandom and modding. Looking at videogames as a participatory medium. What is the role of the player and how does the community play a role in the popularity of videogames‌	Jenkins, Textual Poachers (selections). Raessens, “Computer Games as Participatory Media Culture.” In: J. Raessens and J. Goldstein (eds). Handbook of Computer Game Studies. Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press Olli Sotamaa, "Computer Game Modding, Intermediality and Participatory Culture." http://old.imv.au.dk/eng/academic/pdf_files/Sotamaa.pdf Morris, S. (2003). WADs, Bots and Mods: Multiplayer FPS Games as Co-creative Media. Level Up Conference Proceedings. Utrecht, University of Utrecht.
Tues Sep 30	Defining Games, Defining Fun Today we will discuss exactly what a game is and what fun is. We will attempt to gain an understanding of the concepts and develop a way of talking about these concepts in a scholarly fashion.	Pearce, C. (2004). Towards a game Theory of Game. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 143-153. Juul, J. (2003). The game, the player, the world: looking for a heart of gameness. Level Up Conference Proceedings, Utrecht, University of Utrecht.
Thur Oct 2	Defining Games, Defining Game Studies Continuing the defining of games. Begins to think about the foundational issues of game studies such as ludology vs. narratology.	Understanding Videogames chapter 6, 7 Eskelinen, M. (2004). Towards Computer Game Studies. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 36-44.
Tues Oct 7	Ludology vs. Narratology	Frasca, G. (2003). Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took place. Level Up Conference Proceedings. Utrecht, University of Utrecht. King, G. and T. Krzywinska (2002). Computer Games / Cinema / Interfaces. Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings. Tampere, Tampere University Press.
Thur Oct 9	Ludology vs. Narratology 2	Moulthrop, S. (2004). From Work to Play: Molecular Culture in the Time of Deadly Games. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 56-69. Zimmerman, E. (2004). Narrative, Interactivity, Play, and Games: Four Naughty Concepts in Need of Discipline. First person: new media as story, performance, and game. N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: 154-164.
Tues Oct 14	Gender Today's class will focus on depictions of men and women within videogames.	Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Female-Bobs arrive at Dusk." http://www.opensorcery.net/Femalebob2.html Henry Jenkins, "'Complete Freedom of Movement': Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces." Available here: http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/pub/complete.html. http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/complete.html Orig. published as pp. 262-297 in From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, eds. Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins (Cambridge, MIT Press, 1998).
Thur Oct 16	Lara Croft Today we will discuss the phenomenon of Tomb Raider and the appeals of the Lara Croft character. Is she a feminist‌ Or is she just a doll for men to control‌ (Or can she be both‌)	Schleiner, Anne-Marie "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons‌ Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." Leonardo – Volume 34, Number 3, June 2001, pp. 221-226 ( available at http://www.opensorcery.net/lara2.html or www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/002409401750286976) Kennedy, Helen W. " Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo‌: On the Limits of Textual Analysis." Game Studies. 2(2): 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/ Thompson, Clive. "How Lara Croft Steals Hearts." Wired. April 24, 2006. May 18
Tues Oct 21	Women --"Girl Games" Last class discussed gender within games. Today will will begin to discuss the gender of those who actually play the gamesdiscuss games that attempt to market themselves towards women and some possible explanations why few women play videogames..	Rebecca L. Eisenberg, "Girl Games: Adventures in Lip Gloss." Orig. published in Ms. Magazine (Jan. 1998). Available here: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19980213/girl_games.htm Pinckard, Jane. "Genderplay: Successes and Failures in Character Designs for Videogames." GameGirlAdvance. April 16, 2003 http://is.gd/1Mr4
Thur Oct 23	Women Gaming Girls	Case, Stevie. "Women in Gaming." Microsoft.com. January 12, 2004. May 18, 2006 . http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/womeningames.mspx Jenson, J., & de Castell, S. (June, 2005). Her Own Boss: Gender and the Pursuit of Incompetent Play. Paper presented at DIGRA 2005, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Available at www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.php‌id=186 Carr, D. (June, 2005). Contexts, pleasures and preferences: girls playing computer games. Paper presented at DIGRA 2005, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Available at http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.php‌id=50
Tues Oct 28	Men Moving on to the men who play videogames	Krotoski, Aleks. "Masculinity and online gaming." Guardian Games Blog. March 29 2006. May 19, 2006 . http://is.gd/1Mrq Pay special attention to the comments at the end. Christensen, Natasha Chen. " Geeks at Play: Doing Masculinity in an Online Gaming Site." Reconstruction 6.1 (Winter 2006). http://reconstruction.eserver.org/061/christensen.shtml My article about masculinity in FPS games.
Thur Oct 30	Race	Leonard, David. “Live in your World, Play in Ours”: Race, Video Games, and Consuming the Other.” Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education 3.4 (2003). http://www.utpjournals.com/jour.ihtml‌lp=simile/issue12/leonardX1.html Dymek, M., & Lennerfors, T. (June, 2005). Among pasta-loving Mafiosos, drug-selling Columbians and noodle-eating Triads – Race, humour and interactive ethics in Grand Theft Auto III. Paper presented at DIGRA 2005, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Available at http://www.gamesconference.org/digra2005/viewabstract.php‌id=85
Tues Nov 4	Nationhood Is videogames a way of expressing nationhood‌ Is there a reason why certain games are more popular in the USA and others in Japan or Europe‌	Budra, Paul Vincent. "American Justice and the First-Person Shooter" Canadian Review of American Studies. 34.1 (2004): 1-12. Jeffords, Susan. Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994. Chapters 1 and 2.
Thur Nov 6	Test 2 This test will be designed to make sure that we have a handle on videogame theory as a field and the issues within it. The format will be the same as the first test
Tues Nov 11	Culture Wars	Adorno and Horkheimer, “Culture Industry” excerpt Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Bourdieu, Pierre. “Distinction and The Aristocracy of Culture.” Reprinted in John Stony, ed., Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader, 2nd edition, Pp. 431-441. University of Georgia Press, 1998.
Thur Nov 13	Media Effects Are videogames TEH EVAL‌!‌	Underwood, Mick. "Mass Media Effects: Introduction." June 21, 2003. May 21, 2005 . Read through all the different theories. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/effects.html Media violence statistics. http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/petersikt/Media_stuff/TVThing.html Understanding Videogames ch. 10
Tues Nov 18	Violence Grrrrrr	From Videogames: At Issue: Violence in Video Games May Harm Children9 Elisa Hae-Jung Song and Jane E. Anderson The Problem of Video Game Violence Is Exaggerated 18 Greg Costikyan Video Games Rated Appropriate for Children May Contain Violence27 Kimberly M. Thompson and Kevin Haninger The Video Game Industry Regulates Itself Effectively35 Douglas Lowenstein Irvine, Ian. "A History of Videogame Violence." Gamers With Jobs. http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/24510
Thur Nov 20	Moral Panics Won’t someone think of the children‌!‌	Thompson, Kenneth. Moral Panics. New York: Routledge, 1998. Chapters 1 and 3. Grossman, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill (Chapter 4).
Tues Nov 25	Addiction Can you become addicted to videogames‌	Scheeres, Julia. "The Quest to End Game Addiction." Wired. Dec, 05, 2001. http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,48479,00.html Watch the documentary First-Person Shooter on the course website.
Tues Dec 2	Film Games and Game Films What does it mean for a game to be "cinematic‌" Why do nearly all the films based on videogames fail‌ Why do so many videogames based on films also fail‌	Howells, Sacha A.. "Watching a Game, Playing a Movie: When Media Collide." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 110-21. King, Geoff. "Die Hard/Try Harder: Narrative, Spectacle and Beyond, from Hollywood to Videogame." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 50-65. Grieb, Margit. "Run Lola, Run." Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. London and New York: Wallflower, 2002. 157-171.
Thur Dec 4	Games to Teach‌ Can games teach us‌	Squire, K.D. (2005). Changing the game: What happens when videogames enter the classroom‌. Innovate 1(6). Squire, K. (2003). Video games in education. International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming (2) 1. http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/IJIS.doc Marc, Prensky. "Digital Game-Based Learning." Comput. Entertain. 1.1 (2003): 21-21. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/950566.950596
Tues Dec 9	Videogame Advertising What about those ads‌	Young, Bryan-Mitchell. “The Appearance, Disappearance, and Reapearance in Videogame Advertising.”
Thur Dec 11	Paper discussion and review	PAPER DUE
	Final During Scheduled time

So much work ...and play

user — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:43:51 +0000

Too much work with teaching and playing lots of TF2 to be posting lately. I've got a couple posts I'm working on. Hopefully I'll be able to get them up soon ...ish

Authenticity in games -- coverville?

user — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:02:00 +0000

A few years ago I saw Molly Hatchet play at a county fair. It was only after I got home that I went online and found out that at the time there were no original members left in the band. So the band that I saw -- which spent at least the first set playing songs from their new album -- had little or nothing to do with the band that wrote Flirtin' With Disaster. In essence, they were a cover band. So could I actually say that I saw the "real" Molly Hatchet? I'm wondering how or in what way authenticity applies for videogames. Is there a notion for an "authentic" Mario game? Is there anyone working on Mario besides Miyamoto who worked on the first Super Mario Bros? Does that matter? Is there anyone who would say, "Well, Madden 2009 isn't a 'real' Madden game because no one involved with the original game made this one?" Would that even make sense? Similarly, is there a such thing as a "cover" of a game or is "remake" the same thing as a cover? It does seem as if the one place where authenticity is taken into account by videogame fans is when it comes to emulation. If the game doesn't have perfect emulation then it does feel as if it isn't "really" the original game. I know that in some version of Tetris I've played if you can't move the piece over one spot just when it lands then it doesn't feel right.

Videogame Ethnography class

user — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:09:08 +0000

I thought I would give an update on the videogame ethnography class I'm teaching: The class I'm teaching on videogames is going quite well. The discussions are pretty good but could of course always be better. I'm a bit concerned that I'm not emphasizing the ethnography aspect enough though. Gameplay-wise I have been moving them from single player Half-Life 2 to the eventual goal of Team Fortress 2 with various digressions along the way. Because not all students are videogame experts I've gone slow, trying to make sure that they can get used to the controls before I throw them to the wolves. Balancing playing time with enough time to discuss the readings is difficult. I can't really ask them to play the games on their own time since some don't have computers at home good enough to play the games. I'm thinking about holding a mini-LAN party to simulate the real thing.

Are all MMORPGs the same?

user — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:49:29 +0000

I've only really spend any amount of time playing two MMORPGs: City of Heroes and now Lord of the Rings Online. I did play Anarchy Online for like 5 minutes when they first went free and everyone there was also playing for the first time and none of us could figure out where to go so I uninstalled it. I never paid for any MMORPG. City of Heroes had a free trial in a magazine and has given me free weekends 3-4 times a year ever since and I got a 7 day trial with Lord of the Rings Online. So I haven't had all that much experience with MMORPGs. However, I've come to a conclusion: Even though City of Heroes and Lord of the Rings Online are allegedly different backdrops (superheroes and magic and elves) they are the same game. I kind of realized this when I noticed that my technoblaster and my dwarf hunter were both basically the same. They both shoot the bad guys from a distance. I also tend to not play with other people and just play to get new powers and armor. They are both just about running around, killing stuff, trying to complete objectives and are all about stat and abilities. So what makes one MMORPG better than others? What is the difference? Is it just setting? Is it all a matter of style? One of these days I'll get around to playing World of Warcraft and maybe I'll figure out what makes it so great...

Shock Craig Anderson Publishes a Paper on Media Causing Agression!?! Shock

user — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:29:50 +0000

A study was published in the journal Pediatrics that got a lot of press this week. Among lots of places it appeared on CNN.com with the title, "Violent Video Games Linked to Child Aggression". Even before I read the story I suspected that Craig Anderson was involved. Anderson has never done a study where he didn't find that something caused aggression. He sees aggression everywhere. Now I've read an interview or two with him and he sounds reasonable. He certainly doesn't seem as if he wants to go all Jack Thompson or anything. The problem with this Anderson's work? At least in the papers of his that I have read (and as seems to be common in certain academic fields his name gets attached as coauthor on a lot of papers so it is hard to read all of them) he never offers a clear definition of "aggression." This article is no exception. In one paragraph the authors write,"'Aggression' also is defined differently by behavioral scientists than by the general public. Social and developmental psychologists typically define 'aggression' as behavior that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm. In other words, aggression is an act conducted by 1 person with the intent of hurting another person; it is not an emotion, thought, or intention." (page e1068) However, in the next paragraph they contradict the statement that agression "is not an emotion, thought, or intention" when they state, "Existing experimental studies demonstrate that playing a violent video game causes an immediate increase in aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive emotions." (page e1068) So does "aggression" include thoughts or emotions or not? Regardless, both the Japanese and the USA groups involved self-reporting of "aggression" which puts the results in doubt and there's no information on why the participants in each group were chosen (the Japanese group was actually data from another study) so there's no way of knowing if games make kids more aggressive or if aggressive kids play more games. Finally, the study was funded in part by the National Institute on Media and the Family (page e1070) which also calls the results into question since they are an outspoken group about the evils of videogames. So what does this study show? I'm not a psychologist but as far as I can tell, it doesn't show much of anything.

Left 4 Dead Review and Reflections

user — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Through Valve’s SourceU program that the class I’m teaching tells I’m lucky enough to have gotten Left 4 Dead for free and I’ve been playing the heck out of it. It is a really fun game. The AI Director (or is it Director AI? I’ve seen both) might be a sign of things to come if it can be adapted to other games. Basically it means that the era of enemies being in the same place every time you play the game is over. The AI Director decides when, where, and how many enemies appear in the game so that “It’s never the same game twice.” If they put this into Half-Life 2 Ep 3 then it could be really awesome. That isn’t to say that the game is perfect, however. From a design point of view tey made some interesting choices. I’m tempted to say that it suffers from “console-itis" but I’m not entirely sure that is the case. The first and most noticeable thing is the matchmaking system. It is braindead. They don’t let you pick your own server unless you use a console command. Is it some attempt to make people friend each other so that the Steam friends system has tons of people using it? Is it some plot that Valve can build up their friends database as a selling feature to get other game developers to use Steam features? There’s also the fact that even if you get together with your friends you still can’t pick your own server. There’s not even any way that I’ve seen to pick a local server only. They also don’t represent your ping as a number but rather as cell-phone reception-like bars. Once you get into the game there are also some interesting design choices. They worked really hard to make people play cooperatively and engineered in ways to encourage that. When you reload your character shouts out “I’m reloading.” When you heal your characters yells out “Cover me. I’m healing.” Valve started this with TF2 where players would automatically thank the medic for healing them and this brought it to a new level by these kinds of things as well as having your character say things like they are hurting or that they hear a zombie near and goes so far as to having characters say things that are purely character-related such as having Francis the banker comment on how he hates things such as tunnels, vans, and airports. This is quite a difference from the silent Gordon Freeman. I’ve talked about the meaning of “cinematic” before and this game is one of the first that I think really does make things explicitly cinematice. Each of the four chapters has a movie-style poster that appears on the screen as the level loads and even have witty tag lines. Then the actual beginning of the level has an overhead shot that zooms back that is not only cinematic but serves to give a short overview of what the player is in for. The final level at the airplane is especially film-life in that it shows a smoking plane going overhead and eventually crashing in the distance as a start of the level. This film metaphor is carried through to when you finish the mission by having the scrolling film credits serve as a way of showing player stats. If a player doesn’t make it to the end of the mission the credits begin with “In memory” of that player. The credits end with a nod to credits for films featuring animals by stating “X number of zombies were killed in the making of this film” which cleverly serves as a way of telling you how many zombies you killed in the game. One final thing which Valve did in both this game as well as Team Fortress 2 was to nail down everything. On of the aspects of Half-Life 2 that got a lot of attention and hype was the physics and that you could pick things up and do things with them. Half-Life 2 DM was all about throwing toilets and cast iron radiators. In both Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 everything is nailed down. You can move very few objects. On some TF2 levels there are barrels you can break but they seem to have no impact on gameplay. In L4D there are very few things you can move. While I can understand why they did that – it opens up potentials for griefing and exploits – I wish they hadn’t done it. It places restrictions on gameplay and it disrupts the believability of the world when kitchen chairs are immovable objects. There are more interesting game design choices in the game but these are some of the ones that I didn’t see mentioned elsewhere and that really jumped out at me. As time passes it will, as I alluded to earlier, be interesting to see how this game influences subsequent Valve games.

Has a game ever made you cry?

user — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:25:37 +0000

This question is an old one and it is one that is often used by people from other mediums to question the ability of games to really impact the player and to have a kind of emotional maturity. Most recently it has been asked Over at International Hobo. I would bet that if someone were to ask if a game has ever made you cry you would say "no" -- and you would probably be a liar. Up until recently I would have said "no" as well because the question is usually asked in that context of telling a story that made you cry. That is a misleading way to think about it. People do cry over games all the time but they don't cry over them because of the storylines. So when do people cry over games? They cry when they lose them. I'm sure that nearly every kid has cried because they lost some board or card game. It is almost a cliche to show an athlete cry when they lose the big game whether it is the Super Bowl or a high school sectional. So perhaps the problem isn't that games don't make us cry but rather that we just aren't thinking about the reasons why they already do that.

Post Christmas gaming

user — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:47:14 +0000

Yesterday I got back from spending a week at my parent's house. They don't have broadband. I was totally going through withdraw. I wasn't without games though. I played some Peggle and World of Goo. Fun games that run on my laptop. I also spent a lot of time with my trusty favorite Weird Worlds. Now that I'm back in the land of broadband I've been catching up on Left 4 Dead. I still like the game but I am getting sick of playing the same mission over and over. They need to release more Versus maps and people need to play them! [ad]

Where's my Valkyrie game?

user — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:49:13 +0000

So the film Valkyrie is out. In the film Tom Cruise uses Sientology to build a time machine to kill Hitler or something -- I don't know for sure, history wasn't my strong suit. But what I do know is that it is a movie about killing Hitler. OMGWTFBBQ! If ever there was a storyline that gamers could get behind it would be killing Hitler. Where's my Valkyrie game?!?!

Little Big Planet 9?

user — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:46:30 +0000

So I saw a trailer for a movie called 9 that is coming out on my birthday. It kind of reminded me of Oddworld stuff but the main character really reminded me of Little Big Planet. Then I find out that it was originally a short movie made back in 2005. It has this little guy made from what looks like burlap and he has a big zipper down the front. In his world he uses junk to make stuff. Sound familiar? Coincidence or something more?

9 Nine Shane Acker Short Animation
Uploaded by FrFKmeron

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Evolution of strategy in Left 4 Dead

user — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:18:56 +0000

I don't think I've ever been in on the ground floor of a new multiplayer game before so it is interesting to see how Left 4 Dead's Versus mode has changed and evolved since its release. One of the most noticeable areas has been in regards to the witch. When the game first came out we all generally took Eminem's Not Safe For Work advice and don't "mess" with the witch. Now people just go right up to her and shooter he with the automatic shotgun and killer without getting hurt at all. Similarly, people used to just run from the tank and hope to survive. Then people figured out that molotovs would take the tank out. Now the cool think seems to be for everyone to hit it with the automatic shotgun and sniper rifle (maybe the automatic shotgun needs some tweaking?) The latest tactic I've seen is that someone realized that in some cases the hunters do more damage by swiping at the survivors rather than pouncing. The logic behind this is that if you pounce you don't always do damage and might get knocked off before you start doing damage. If you swipe someone you are much quieter, can almost always get one hit in, and can perhaps get in more without having to wait to recharge the pounce. Right now there's a lot of debate over exploits within the game. One that pretty much everyone agrees is an exploit is the minigun jump I've only seen people use this in Versus mode once and it is pretty much a jerk thing to do. Another exploit that is definitely wrong and a real jerk thing is the spectator glitch in which you can spawn tons of hunters. I've seen a couple people do this and one named Ghost something who I've ran into a couple times (of course he spells Ghost all l33t and stuff to show how much he roxors). The final exploit is more controversial in my opinion. It involves breaking down the door and avoiding the crescendo event on the 3rd (I think it is the 3rd) level. There are more exploits like hitting things into exits so survivors can't go past but that has been fixed and only works on the Xbox360 so that doesn't really count. There's also hiding under the ramp in the finale which I've seen some people do but doesn't happen all that often and there's jumping off the side of the building in the beginning but that causes a lot of damage so I haven't seen anyone do it. Anyway, I'm not trying to document all the exploits and glitches in the game. It is just interesting to note which tactics stick, which don't, and how they spread.

updated wordpress and theme

user — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:22:44 +0000

I've updated to the latest version of wordpress and installed a new theme, Atahualpa. There are tons of options in it so I'll probably be messing around with the settings for a little while. Hopefully everything works!

Am I out of Touch?

user — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:36:01 +0000

I'm starting to wonder if I'm out of touch with the gaming community. I don't have any of the current generation consoles. I have never played WoW. Because of this a lot of the stuff I read or listen to about new games doesn't really apply to me. I really got to thinking about this when listening to the latest episode of the Rebel FM Podcast that features ex-staffers of Electronic Gaming Monthly. In it they had a discussion of the feel of shooters. Throughout it all they were talking about console shooters. It was then that I found myself becoming a computer-gaming-fanboy. I kept saying, "You are talking about console-First-Person-Shooters and therefore your opinion is irrelevant!" In my opinion playing a First-Person Shooter on a console is like playing basketball with a flat ball. Sure you can do it but I can't imagine why anyone would actually do it if they had the ability to do it the right way. Halo may have had some nice play mechanics like the regenerating shield but it is the Candy Land of shooters -- it is fun for little kids but any normal adult should tire of it quickly. So am I just out of touch? Is it possible that Halo isn't lame (I find that hard to accept)? Or is everyone else just crazy? (The truth is probably somewhere in between...) [ad]

Review of Mia Consalvo's Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames

user — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:04:33 +0000

I've been a fan of Mia Consalvo's work for a while so I was really looking forward to her book, Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. If you haven't heard anything about it you can find a pdf of the introduction (and the index too, but that seems to be less valuable) on the MIT Press site. Despite the book being from MIT Press, I found it a bit less academic than I would have hoped. This isn't to say that it is a bad book but it isn't the hardcore theory-filled analysis that I was hoping for. As it stands, the book seems to sit somewhere between Masters of Doom and the stuff in the DiGRA Digital Library. I found the book to be entertaining if a bit too mainstream. There is some very interesting analysis of cheating, game guides, and faqs to be found in it though.

Resident Evil 5 Racism From Someone Who Hasn't Played It

user — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:22:09 +0000

“I didn’t see any racist imagery in it” “No one says anything about the Spanish people in RE4” “Why does it matter what color zombies are?” “Why do people have to read so much into things?” “Games are escapism” “They didn’t mean to be racist” “This is made by the Japanese so why would they know about racism?” “Someone who thinks this is racist is racist” These are all comments that I've seen on places like gamepolitics, Kotaku, and Joystiq. I’ve been putting off writing about this because I really don’t know if it will do any good and I don’t want to get into some flame war. I imagine that the people who have made up their mind probably won’t change them very easily. However, with N’Gai Croal leaving Newsweek, it came up again and it seems like it will keep coming up. That coupled with a website story about an “expert” talking about the game has made me decide not to hold my tongue any longer. For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about Resident Evil 5. More accurately though I’m talking about people’s reactions to Resident Evil 5 (more accurately than that I’m writing about people’s reactions to people’s reactions to the Resident Evil 5 trailer). I haven’t played RE5. I don’t have any current gen consoles so I probably won’t be playing it any time soon. But that’s ok because most of the online discussion has been about the trailer. Now, at this late date it is kind of hard to understand what people are talking about because there have been several trailers for RE5. The one that people first picked up on was an early first teaser trailer which didn’t really show much. Even a later trailer which showed more included the questionable lines, “there’s no reason here… no humanity.” There is a lot more known about the game now than there was back when this first started. There have been countless articles and blogs written about the issue. N'Gai Croal got caught up in it when MTV’s gaming blog asked him about it and he gave his opinion about the trailer. Despite the fact that he didn’t bring it up and didn’t write about it himself, when people commented on him leaving his position at Newsweek, RE5 was inevitably brought up I'm not going to say the game is or isn’t racist because, as I said, I haven’t played it. I’m not going to say the trailer was racist either. I do think that the early trailer did contain some imagery that was troubling in terms of its depiction of race when presented in isolation the way in which it was. The trailer has imagery that perpetuates stereotypes that everyone in Africa is poor and all of Africa is a desert. Reading through the numerous comments on some of the stories some common themes seemed to come out. Most of the comments were pretty kneejerk and reactionary. It seems as if any criticism of videogames calls out the internet fanboys and the mere suggestion that a trailer for a game might be a bit racist is a horrible thing and requires vehement defense. One of the oddest and yet more common comments was something along the lines of “Anyone who thinks this is racist is racist themselves!” Ummm, what? So thinking something might not be the best way of depicting race makes you racist? That’s just bizarre. Another common comment was “it is just a trailer.” Well that is true but that trailer just didn’t happen. They picked those scenes specifically because they wanted them to represent their game. When that trailer came out, no one knew what the game was like. All we had togo on was that trailer. “They didn’t mean to be racist” No. I’m pretty sure they didn’t. So does that make it ok? I didn’t mean to break the law so I won’t get arrested? More importantly, people often use the excuse of “they didn’t mean it” as a way of forgiving something or dismissing criticisms. However, can we ever really know someone’s intention? We don’t have telepathy so all we ever have is perception. Even if someone says they don’t mean it, how can we know that they aren’t lying? No, intention isn’t ever possible to discern with total certainty and so all we have is perception. “This is made by the Japanese so why would they know about racism?” Sadly, the USA doesn’t have a monopoly on racism. No they probably don’t know much about the history of racism in the USA. But Japan has a history of racism all its own, just ask Korea. Also they are pretty ignorant of other races. Japan is really homogeneous in its people. So they don’t have much experience with people of other races so they aren’t aware of it. Heck, blackface is still acceptable in Japan. And people of African descent aren’t the only ones stereotyped. In 2005 the UN called racism in Japan “deep and profound.” More recently, a videogame site asked an anthropologist to look at Resident Evil 5 and lead their article with the pull quote: "'It's silly to call it racist', says leading anthropologist." I'm sure that Glenn Bowman, the anthropologist in question, is an excellent scholar but the fact is he is not an expert on videogames or even media in general and I think that really undercuts the authority of his opinion. The reason for this is that he, like myself, did not actually play the game so neither of us knows what it is like to play it. Perhaps more importantly, he doesn't say anything about the camera angles used and I really think that this is what people are latching onto when they have a negative reaction to the trailers. Because I'm talking about the trailers, perhaps the most appropriate way of looking at them is through the lens of films studies -- yes, I of all people, am advocating applying film theory to something from the videogame world! Let's be honest, these are little movies. Based on the comments and articles I've read and podcasts I've heard (and Rebel FM's episode where they Discuss RE5 is pretty good), people are responding to these films as if the camera didn't exist and looking only at the world presented within the game and not the camera angles, lighting or editing. Ignoring the fact that these are computer generated and not actually filmed (which perhaps make the filmic elements more important since all of them were purposely chosen and nothing within it "just happened" or was "already there."), all camera work is subjective. Camera angles do not just "happen." They are chosen and they are created. They picked camera angles to make the Africans look threatening. They used shadows to make the distinction between human and zombie blurry. They edited it in such a way that nothing was fully shown. We cannot just ignore the kino eye in these situations. When attempting to look at these trailers critically it is a mistake to allow ourselves to be sutured into the game. The Resident Evil games have always taken cues from cinema and replicated dramatic camera angles and so especially when it comes to this game series we must not allow ourselves to pretend that we are there and that this is not a constructed work. This is especially important when countering the claims of those who argued, "No one says anything about the Spanish people in RE4.” Look at the trailers for Resident Evil 4. None of them use camera angles, lighting, or editing in anything like the same way that the early trailers for RE5 do. In the end, like I said in the beginning, I'm not saying that the game or the trailers are racist. I am saying that a lot of the things people have written aren't taking the manufactured and, dare I say it, "cinematic" nature of the trailers into account.

What I've been up to

user — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:55:23 +0000

The semester here at Kokomo is finished. Another good semester of teaching ethnographic-based interpersonal communication. I'll be back in Bloomington in the fall. I'm only scheduled to teach one class in the fall at the moment so I need some money. If it weren't against Google's terms of service I'd encourage people to click my ads but since that is against the terms I won't... Now I'm trying to write my dissertation. My advisers want me to get 2 chapters done this summer so I have a lot to do. I've got 2 pages done so far. That's about half way done, right?

CMCL Position open for Fall--please forward to interested parties

user — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:22:35 +0000

The Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University-Bloomington has been authorized to hire a Visiting Assistant Professor for the2009-2010 academic year (August 2009-May 2010) to teach courses in digital media and television studies. We invite candidates from a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds and encourage applicants whose teaching and research interests are grounded in critical humanities scholarship concerning the cultural, political, and communicative aspects of digital game studies. Ph.D. and teaching experience required. Applications will be reviewed starting May 21, 2009. Indiana University is an equal opportunity employer. Send inquiries, CV, and names of three references to: Gregory A. Waller Chair, Department of Communication and Culture gwaller at indiana.edu

Dissertation writing

user — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:32:31 +0000

The summer is here and that means one thing: lots of writing. I'm starting to write the dissertation and I'm 15 pages in on my first chapter. I'm starting to get burned out from writing so much but I'm going to go see the new Terminator tomorrow. I know it isn't getting very good reviews but big deal, right? I'm writing about the community of LAN parties and coming up a bunch of question without answers. Is it a community? if so, in what way? Is it a thrid place? Oldenburg explicitly says that a room full of people playing videogames isn't a third place but he was writing that back before multiplayer games were common. However, he also makes a big deal about talking as being very important but there isn't much talking going on at the LAN parties.... So many questions! And the new Team Fortress 2 update is out!

Most Insulting Paper Title Ever?

user — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:12:16 +0000

I'm currently writing about LAN parties as third places and in doing some research I came across this article: Appeal of violent video games to lower educated aggressive adolescent boys. Wow, could the researchers have a lower opinion of videogame players? So the only reason someone would like violent games is if they were uneducated and violent? Crazy. I haven't read the article so it could easily something more reasonable but as a title it sure is ponderous.

Dissertation Chapter Bibliography

user — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:54:22 +0000

I'm finishing up the first draft of the first chapter of my dissertation (it isn't actually chapter 1 which will be the lit review and such but just the first chapter I've written) and so I decided I would post the bibliography from the draft to give folks an idea of what I'm writing about. This is a straight cut and paste from my paper so no nice formatting or turning urls into links.

WORKS CITED Accardo, Sal "Sluggo". “Team Fortress 2.” Gamespy 10 Oct 2007. 13 Jun 2009 . Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 1991. boyd, danah. “Why Youth ? Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.” The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning - (2007): 119-142. Clark, Michael, and Olaf Thyen. “gemütlich.” The Concise Oxford German Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2004. 8 Jun 2009 . Critical Arts Ensemble. “Utopian Promises - Net Realities.” Howard Rheingold's Brainstorms 14 Nov 1995. . Ducheneaut, Nicolas, Robert J. Moore, and Eric Nickell. “Virtual “third places”: A case study of sociability in massively multiplayer games.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing 16.1 (2007): 129-166. Fine, Gary Alan, and Sherryl Kleinman. “Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis.” The American Journal of Sociology 85.1 (1979): 1-20. Goffman, Erving. Behavior in Public Places. New York: Free Press, 1966. ---. Encounters: Two studies in the sociology of interaction. Macmillan Pub Co, 1961. Granovetter, Mark. “The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited.” Sociological Theory 1 (1983): 201-233. Haythornthwaite, Caroline. “Introduction: The Internet in everyday life.” American Behavioral Scientist 45.3 (2001): 363. Haythornthwaite, Caroline, and Barry Wellman. “The Internet in everyday life.” Ed. Barry Wellman & Caroline Haythornthwaite. The Internet in everyday life (2002): 3-41. Hendricks, Thomas S. “Simmel: On Sociability as the Play-Form of Human Association.” Play and Educational Theory and Practice. Ed. Donald E. Lytle. Praeger Publishers, 2003. 19-32. Komito, Lee. “The Net as a Foraging Society: Flexible Communities.” The Information Society 14.2 (1998): 97-106. Koster, Ralph. “The Laws of Online World Design.” Ralph Koster's Home Page 13 Nov 2005. 3 Jun 2009 . Kraut, Robert et al. “Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?.” The American Psychologist 53.9 (1998): 1017. Licklider, J. C. R., and Robert Taylor. “The Computer as a Communication Device.” Science and technology 76.21 (1968): 621-626. Monsef, Kiyash J. Gamers: A Documentary. 2003. . Muuss, Mike. “The Story of the PING Program.” 19 May 2009. 19 May 2009 . Nohria, Nitin, and Robert Eccles. “Face-to-Face: Making Network Organizations Work.” Technology, Organizations and Innovation: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management (2000): 1659. Noyes, Dorothy. “Group.” The Journal of American Folklore 108.430 (1995): 449-478. Oldenburg, Ray. Great Good Place. second. Marlowe & Company, 1999. ---. “Third Places.” Encyclopedia of community: from the village to the virtual world. Ed. K. Christensen & D. Levinson. Sage Publications Inc, 2003. 1373-1375. Putnam, Robert. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster, 2000. Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Finding Commection in a Computerized World. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc. Boston, MA, USA, 1993. Shah, Dhavan, Nojin Kwak, and R. Lance Holbert. “"Connecting" and" Disconnecting" With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital.” Political Communication 18.2 (2001): 141-162. Simmel, Georg. “The sociology of Georg Simmel.” Trans. Kurt H Wolff. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.(Original work published 1908) (1950). . ---. “The Sociology of Sociability.” Trans. Everett C. Hughes. The American Journal of Sociology 55.3 (1949): 254-261. Steinkuehler, Constance A., and Dmitri Williams. “Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places".” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11.4 (2006): 885-909. Stewart, Kym, and Hyewon Choi. “PC-Bang (Room) Culture: A Study of Korean College Students' Private and Public Use of Computers and the Internet.” Trends in Communication 11.1 (2003): 63-79. Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. Simon & Schuster, 1995. Van Gelder, Lindsy. “The strange case of the electronic lover.” Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (1991): 364-378. Weinreich, Frank. “Establishing a Point of View Toward Virtual Communities.” CMC Magazine 4.2 (1997). . Wellman, Barry, and Milena Gulia. “Net-Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities.” Ed. Barry Wellman. Networks in the global village: Life in contemporary communities (1999): 331-66.

I've been using Zotero to manage my citations and it is pretty nice. It is miles better than endnote in that it isn't a baffling program that is cryptic, non-intuitive, and doesn't tell you if something doesn't work. It has some rough spots such as the fact that firefox has to be open when you are writing in word for it to actually input the citations or the fact that I crashed it once when I tried to cut and paste a page number into its page number form.

cryostasis and trying to use yahoo pipes to manage rss

user — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:08:07 +0000

I've been playing Cryostasis and wow it is pretty scary. Before it came out people were saying it was like Bioshock but I think it has a lot more in common with Penumbra: Overture. Like Penumbra: Overture, Cryostasis also takes place in a cold snow and ice-bound environment and while Cryostasis does have combat, it pretty well stinks and the majority of the game, like Overture, seems to be about figuring out what is happening and the scary environment. I've also started playing an MMORPG that is in beta. Since it is in beta I'm not supposed to say anything about it which is weird since it isn't really a "beta" but rather it is a big budget, MMO that is transitioning from a monthly subscription model to a free to play model. So although the game has been out a year or two and is based on a pen and paper rpg that started the whole pen and paper rpg genre I am not supposed to say anything about it. So I won't. Except to comment that I'm amazed that it is also just like the only two other MMOs I've played, City of Heroes and Lord of the Rings Online. The combat is a little different but that's about it. Since it is free I'll probably play it every once in a while. Finally, I've also been messing around with trying to use Yahoo Pipes to make a better way to keep track of any interesting sites people tag on delicious.com. Because delicious doesn't really have a legitimate search, if you try "game" you will get something different than "games" for example. So I'm trying to use Pipes to aggregate as many variations on "videogame" and "theory" that seem useful. If anyone cares, here's a link to the delicious videogame theory mashup pipe. I'm adding more delicious tags to it as I go so I suppose I should be cool and call it a "beta" (although the cool kids seem to have moved on to labeling thing as from their "labs" now rather than "beta."). I don't really know what I'm doing with programing the pipes so if anyone has a better method please let me know.

Yahoo pipes rss update

user — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:55:13 +0000

With some help from someone on the yahoo pipes message board (who did all the hard work. I'm not even 100% sure how the thing works to be honest because it uses regex and I don't know anything about regular expressions) I was able to get a "beta" of my yahoo pipes delicious.com videogame theory ultimate rss mashup working. here's a link to the page for it. It asks you to put in some terms but the default ones work fine. (If there are any i'm missing let me know.) This came about from the fact that delicious (I still want to type del.icio.us) isn't smart enough to search for synonyms. So if you search for things tagged "videogame" is won't search for "videogames" or "games." Additionally, just searching for "videogame" will turn up anything related to videogames which isn't all that useful to my purposes. So what tag do you add? theory? academic? So what the pipe does is runs all the combinations of one group of terms (in this case variations on the term "videogame") with a second group of terms (in this case terms that people might use for videogame theory stuff). Because there are lots of sites that might be tagged with all the terms it also tried to filter out duplicates. My next step is to take this basic pipe and also apply it to twitter and friendfeed searches with all the term combinations so that it will pick up any posts on those that might be of interest to videogame studies people.

I have no words

user — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:12:42 +0000

I usually don't just post one link and be done with it but I'm not sure what else to write. I think this look at a rather "unique" mind says it all.

Dissertation Chapter 2 Works Cited

user — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:06:21 +0000

I'm just about to turn in the first draft for chapter 2 of the dissertation. Here's the unformatted works cited for it: Ajana, Btihaj. “Disembodiment and Cyberspace: A Phenomenological Approach.” Electronic Journal of Sociology (2004). 16 Jul 2009 . Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. Routledge, 1985. Austin, Joe, and Michael Nevin Willard. “Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America.” Ed. Joe Austin & Michael Nevin Willard. New York: NYU Press, 1998. 1-20. Bedford, Charles. “LAN Parties: it's a scene, baby!.” loonygames 1998. 18 Aug 2009 . Berger, Arthur Asa. “Eleven Ways of Looking at the Gulf War..” ETC.: A Review of General Semantics 51.2 (1994): 177-180. Bird, Sharon R. “Welcome To The Men's Club: Homosociality and the Maintenance of Hegemonic Masculinity.” Gender Society 10.2 (1996): 120-132. Breckon, Nick. “Quake Live Open Beta Goes Live.” Shacknews 24 Feb 2009. 13 Jul 2009 . Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay In Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Ed. Amelia Jones. New York: Routledge, 2003. 392-402. Clark, Andy. Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Connell, R. W, and James W Messerschmidt. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender Society 19.6 (2005): 829-859. Connell, RW. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford University Press, 1987. . Coyle, Karen. “How Hard Can It Be?.” Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace. Ed. Lynn Cherny & Elizabeth Reba Weisse. Seal Press, 1996. 42–55. Csordas, Thomas J. Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Dovey, Jon, and Helen W. Kennedy. Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media. Open University Press, 2006. Foy, Laura. “In Search of Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood Videos.” G4tv 12 Oct 2005. 23 Aug 2009 . Friedman, Ted. “Civilization and Its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and Space.” On a Silver Platter: CD-ROMs and the Promises of a New Technology. Ed. Greg M. Smith. New York: NYU Press, 1999. 132-150. . Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-181. . ---. “Cyborgs and Symbionts: Living Together in the New World Order.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Gray. London: Routledge, 1995. xi-xx. Hayles, N. Katherine. “The Life Cycle of Cyborgs: Writing the Posthuman.” The Cyborg Handbook. Ed. Chris Gray. London: Routledge, 1995. 321-334. Jeffords, Susan. Hard bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. Rutgers Univ Pr, 1994. Jenson, Jennifer, and de Castell Susan. “What “real” girls play: Dispelling the myths of virtual equality.” San Antonio, TX, 2004. Kimmel, Michael S. “Rethinking Masculinity: New Directions in Research.” Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and masculinity. Ed. Michael S. Kimmerl. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1987. 9-24. Kunzru, Hari. “You Are Cyborg.” Wired Magazine 5.2 (1997). . Kushner, Davis. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004. Leder, Drew. The Absent Body. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Levy, Donald P. “Hegemonic Masculinity.” Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Ed. George Ritzer. Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 22 Aug 2009 . Lie, Merete. “Technology and Masculinity: The Case of the Computer.” European Journal of Women's Studies 2.3 (1995): 379-394. Lupton, Deborah. “The Embodied Computer/User.” The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell & Barbara M. Kennedy. New York: Routledge, 2000. 477-89. Martin, Randy. Performance as Political Act: The Embodied Self. New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1990. Messner, Michael. “Boyhood, Organized Sports and the Construction of Masculinities.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 18.4 (1990): 416-444. Pinckard, Jane. “Genderplay: Successes and Failures in Character Designs for Videogames.” Game Girl Advance 16 Apr 2003. 21 Aug 2009 . “Release Information for Quake.” 13 Jul 2009 . Schleiner, Anne-Marie. “About.” Velvet-Strike 20 Feb 2004. 21 Aug 2009 . ---. “Flamer Gallery.” Velvet-Strike 20 Feb 2004. 21 Aug 2009 . ---. “Sprays.” Velvet-Strike 20 Feb 2004. 21 Aug 2009 . Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories About Virtual Cultures.” Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991. 81-118. . Turque, Bill. “Erasing the Vietnam Nightmare.” Newsweek 4 Feb 1991: 67. Wajcman, Judy. Feminism Confronts Technology. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr, 1991. “Wolfenstein 3D.” 3D Realms. 18 Aug 2009 .

busy busy busy

user — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:08:33 +0000

The summer is almost over. Actually I started teaching one class for Ivy Tech last week. IU doesn't start until Monday. This summer I moved, got a new car, and drafted out two chapters. I'm going to the Association of Internet Researchers Conference in October, and I've got an SCMS paper proposal to get out by Tuesday. I think that's a pretty busy summer.

Digg---jccalhoun---History-

user — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:55:36 +0000

I think I'm digging it wrong...

user — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:59:08 +0000

I'll never be MrBabyMan at this rate!

Wasted away again -- multiple games, multiple cultures

user — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:12:06 +0000

In the world of videogame studies there has been a lot written about Wow and MUDs and MOOs and fairly little written about FPS players so I've looked at the MMORPG stuff to see where it is similar to or different from my research interests. I was listening to the latest episode of the podcast, A Life Well Wasted the other day and it got me thinking. If you don't know, A Life Well Wasted is kind of like the This American Life of videogame podcasts. It is really good even if it doesn't come out as often as I would like. The latest episode is "Artists, Fans, & Engineers" has some great interviews with cosplayers and fanfic authors. Felicia Day's work on The Guild has also been getting a lot of attention and in particular her song "Do You Want to Date My Avatar." Back in the 90s I participated in a comic book APA and did a little bit of comic book fanfic and I've read Henry Jenkins so I am familiar with fandom. I've never played WoW but I have played a little bit of City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online and I'm currently playing the free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons Online. Through none of this experience, however, have I done much team questing and never joined a guild. My experiences with anime, manga, and jrpgs is also pretty limited. I've seen a few anime shows (I grew up with Robotech), I've read Lone Wolf and Cub, and I've played Final Fantasy 7 and part of 8. However, when it comes to a lot of these less popular jrpgs I am clueless. I got to say, this kind of cosplay and fanfic just doesn't happen in First-Person Shooters. Sure, there is some but it just isn't at the level it is among the mmorpg and jrpg players. There are certainly reasons for this, more story, a different perspective so you can see your character and character customization, and so on. But because of this they really seem to attract different kinds of people. There is overlap of course but the hardcore mmorpg and jrpg players don't tend to be hardcore fps players and vice-versa. I think that perhaps we really need to stop thinking about "videogames" as a monolithic thing and about "gamers" as belonging to a single monolithic group. Just as figure skating fans and hockey fans don't tend to be the same people despite the superficial similarities of the two, neither are mmorpg, jrpg, and fps players (there's some gendered aspects to those sports and I don't think it is a coincidence that female mmorpg and jrpg players are much more common than female fps players. However, that is a matter for another post at another time.). I guess what I'm saying is that videogames aren't the same and neither are the players.

gta

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:13:46 +0000

diablo

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:16:51 +0000

tekken

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:17:29 +0000

cod4

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:18:09 +0000

rockband

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:20:52 +0000

Is Gameloft videogaming's version of The Asylum?

user — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:23:11 +0000

It isn't much of a secret that I'm a fan of bad movies and one of the more infamous companies that make bad movies is The Asylum. They are the producers of a lot of films such as 18 Year Old Virgin, The Day the Earth Stopped, Snakes on a Train, The Terminators, and Transmorphers. As these examples show, The Asylym's gimmick is that they think of a title that is similar to an upcoming film, make a film as quickly as possible, and get it into the video stores to piggy back on the original film. Well, it seems like a videogame company has seen how easy it is for The Asylum to make money and has started making their own knockoffs. I was listening to the idle Thumbs podcast when one of the hosts mentioned Gameloft's "awesome" iphone games. Not having an iphone I can't say if the phones are any good or not but I can't help but think that they would be just as good as The Asylum's films with titles like: Dungeon Hunter which I'm sure is nothing like Diablo,

Blades of Fury which looks nothing like Tekken,

Modern Combat: Sandstorm which looks nothing like Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat,

Gangstar: West Coast Hustle which has no similarities to GTA: San Andreas,

and I'm sure that the fact that Guitar Rock Tour has a title so similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band is just coincidental.

Please tell me I'm not the only one hoping that Gameloft and The Asylum will hook up so we can get some games based on The Asylum's films. That would be incredible.

Girls are dumb... ...according to Sony

user — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:07:50 +0000

So this guy's girlfriend is so dumb she doesn't notice the guy pushing buttons on the controller or that certain scenes keep happening over and over when he dies? Or are they saying that Uncharted 2 is full of long cut scenes? It is nice to see Sony stretching out and advertising games to new markets like straight white men... (seriously though who is this commercial for? Any guy watching it who might be remotely interested would already be interested in the PS3. Maybe it is just to generate general brand awareness?)

AoIR 2009 IR10 Presentation

user — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:27:27 +0000

Here's my presentation from the Internet Researchers conference. The conference was pretty good. Enjoyed the panels. Got some good questions. next year is in Sweden so I probably won't be attending but 2011 is in Seattle so I hope to attend that one.

AoiR 2009 Cyborg LAN party

View more presentations from jccalhoun.

Doomguy

user — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:27:04 +0000

The Quiet Season

user — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:40:34 +0000

Quiet around here lately. I've been busy teaching 5 classes. I'm done teaching but I've got grading to do yet. I'm meeting with my advisers tomorrow and I hope they don't yell at me for not writing anything this semester since I'm teaching so much. Mo' money. mo' problems... I'll post something more substantial soon. ...ish

2010 the year we try to finish writing dissertations?

user — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:15:14 +0000

Last semester I was teaching 5 classes so I didn't get much writing done. This semester I'm back to teaching only 2 classes so I am going to try to bang out drafts of the rest of this dissertation thing. Of course that means I would have to look for a job and there aren't many of those around at the moment... For the next chapter I really want to get into what I'm calling "mixed-mode" communication. I'm interested in looking at how people will communicate both through computers (including things like phones even though I'm only focusing on gaming) as well as through non-computer mediated ways. How do people sitting near one another chose to talk over ventrillo or something and when do they talk directly to one another. Or when they might talk directly to one another but they are referring to something in the game like telling a teammate to go somewhere and using their in game character to point in the direction or something like that.

Ethnographic tools

user — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:47:27 +0000

I've been interviewing people lately and I've been thinking about my equipment. It is a bit dated though and so I'm looking to replace it. How dated you ask? Well, my main recording device is a Sony Minidisc recorder. It is a Hi-MD model, one of the last ones they made, so it can be uploaded to a computer. Like all minidisc recorders it does a pretty good job but it is six years old. When I bought the player back in 2004, solid state recorders were pretty expensive but now they are really cheap. I don't have an ipod or iphone so using one of those to record with isn't really an option (although I'm thinking about getting an ipod touch since I'm missing out on that gaming experience). Of course the Zoom H4n is really sweet but I think that might be overkill. The truth of the matter is that I have some affection for my old minidisc recorder. It really is a nice piece of hardware. It is just too bad that Sony waited so long to bring out a model that could upload to computers and that they saddled it with the terrible ATRAC format. Is this technonostalgia?

Where have you gone Jack Thompson

user — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:56:09 +0000

Once upon a time Jack Thompson was the nemesis of gamers. Then he got permanently disbarred but that didn't stop him as he claimed to be fighting the Florida Bar and probably lots of other crazy things. He also started writing an occasional column for some online conservative site. Now, however, he seems to have disappeared. Once a search for Jacko on google news showed up all sorts of antics by him but now searching for Jacko on google news just returns the occasional story mentioning him as a foil and stories about other people named Jack Thompson. (I wonder if the actor Jack Thompson ever gets people accusing him of hating videogames?) Jacko hasn't even posted a column since August of 2009. I wonder if Jacko has just given up or if he's planning some new media frenzy. I kind of hope he keeps at it because his insane claims sure were entertaining even if there were some people who believed his lies. [ad#ad-1]

Speak his name and he appears...

user — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:35:14 +0000

In my last post I asked, "Where have you gone Jack Thompson?" Well, if you say his name then he'll appear... Activision CEO Bobby Kotick's full DICE speech, Jack Thompson says 'Gotcha!'

Movies can be scary too...

user — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:22:34 +0000

Allow me a non-videogame-related rant here... It is still about moral panics surrounding children and media though so it could easily have been about videogames instead of movies. I caught a story on the local NPR station last night about someone threatening a lawsuit against Redbox because they sell "R-rated" movies. I searched for something about the story and apparently it got picked up by a few local news outlets including the Indianapolis Fox Affiliate and the Louisville ABC Affiliate. According to stories the whole thing is being stirred up by Vanderburgh Country Prosecutor Stan Levco. Of course there's two little details that neither of the two stories linked to above or any of the other stories I saw seemed to mention: First, The MPAA rating system "is a voluntary system" and the ratings are not legally enforced. The only possible grounds for a lawsuit that there would be would be under obscenity or pornography laws. Levco almost certainly knows this. So why is he causing a stir? That leads to the second missing detail: Levco is running for re-election. So this is just a ploy to get into the headlines so that Levco can say he is "fighting for families" and concerned about "family values" without having to do anything. The minute I heard this story I immediately wondered if the guy was up for re-election because that's the only time public officials try to start legal proceedings related to media. I guess Levco couldn't find any easy videogame targets. Heaven forbid that any of the media outlets that aired this story would take two minutes to wonder why Levco was doing this or anything... That's some good reportering there...

On Art and Violence

user — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:12:06 +0000

Now that the semester is winding down I've got a bit of time to blog (and write my last couple dissertation chapters and then revise all of them and write the intro and conclusion chapters...). A couple things have happened (and are in the process of happening) that have the gaming world buzzing: Roger Ebert wrote about videogames again and the Supreme Court is taking up the case of California's law forbidding the sale of videogames to minors. Regarding Ebert, he ends by asking, "Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art?" which echoes my own call for all of us to stop caring about "art." Tons and tons of people have tried to convince him he's wrong -- so many in fact that I don't even want to bother hunting down links to some of the stories that do it. I'm not interested in arguing with him because I don't really care if he thinks games are art or not. However, it is very disconcerting that he seems to think that he can judge games by looking at screenshots. Would he write a review of a film based on the text on the back of the dvd box? That's pretty ignorant to think that he can judge games in that manner. Unfortunately, this is just the top of the iceberg because look at the picture at the top of his post. Now I have no idea if he picked that picture or not. I would say that he probably didn't but he did pick the rest of the pictures in the post so perhaps he did. Regardless, the picture didn't just appear by itself. Someone chose that picture. What is in that picture? A kid. So someone whether it was Ebert of just some random web guy, wanted to pick a picture of a gamer and they picked a kid -- once again perpetuating the stereotype that games are for kids and in this instance also seemingly indicating that games are in and of themselves childish. Wow. That's pretty sad. OK, now onto the Supreme Court... I'm pretty confident that the Supreme Court will say this law is unconstitutional not only because lower courts have consistently ruled that laws regulating videogame sales are unconstitutional but also because of the recent Supreme Court decision declaring a law banning animal cruelty videos unconstitutional. Today the Diane Rehm Show had a segment on the Supreme Court taking on the Videogame law regulating videogame sales and had Leland Yee, the California politician behind the bill, Craig Anderson, the guy who has never met a form of media that didn't cause aggression, and a couple other people I don't remember. Now, I've previously criticized Anderson's vague use of the term "aggression" so I was pleasantly surprised that Diane Rehm's first question to him was "what is the difference between agression and violence?" Anderson initially tried to avoid answering the question but then Rehm re-asked the question and Anderson admitted that while violence is generally understood as an extreme form of aggression, it is very rare for aggression to actually turn into violence. I think that it really key because in that statement Anderson (who also in this CNN video says that videogame-caused "aggression" isn't really any worse than film or television-causes "aggression" ) says that videogames don't really make kids violent. If the most well known person who thinks videogames cause aggression doesn't think they make you violent then that makes the case that they are so bad that we need laws against selling them much harder to prove. Personally, I look forward to the SCOTUS shutting down these kinds of laws once and for all. ...well that and Jack Thompson getting involved and saying some crazy things...