Thursday, May 29, 2008

What's makes a game truly great chainsaws or chainmail bikinis?



Over on the Girls Entertainment Network, good old Aktrez has posted an interesting editorial on sex in games. While I suspect that it's as much about driving traffic to her site as it is about her interest in the subject, I was still compelled to leave a comment. It turned into such an epic that I decided to repost it here:

First off, I wouldn't say that there isn't also a lot of blowback about sexualized music and television pop culture.

Having worked at both a record store and a video rental store I can say that I heard a lot of vitriol and concern from parents when it came to sexual content. I can defiantly tell you that most parents at the video store could care less about graphic violence...but god forbid you recommend a move for the family that has even the remotest sexual content.

The same can be said for the sort of virgin slut pop starlets of the late 90s. I remember several parents trying to return britney and christina albums that heir daughters had purchased because they didn't approve of the message (such as it was).

having said that. I agree that the same attitude is present when it comes to the general publics view of video games.

but I think it's amplified for three reasons:

1. The average member of "the public" may not be as familiar with video games as they are with other forms of media (hence the popular "What ever happened to Pac Man?" mantra)

2. The perception by the average member of "the public" that video games are "for kids". I don't need to belabor this...you all know the reality is that much like other media Games are enjoyed by all sorts of people old and young, and like other media there are games for kids and there are games that are obviously only for adults.

3. This is the big one, interactivity. I think that the general public is most uncomfortable with the idea that games let you "act out" some of these acts. Take the Mass Effect flap. It seemed like much of the criticism was phrased to emphasize the fact that the player could "choose" to do all this crazy sex. And that the player "takes part" in rape etc.
There is something about interactivity that makes people uncomfortable.

like it's somehow less harmful for people to watch violent movies than it is for them to play violent games, because the interaction somehow trains or conditions them. The same goes for sex. I mean even I have to say that it'd be one thing to watch a movie about a sexually aggressive deviant than it would to actually play a game where I was behaving like a sexually aggressive deviant. Even if I know that I can tell the difference between right and wrong. the "free will" or "choice" aspect is a very powerful element of gaming that can not be underestimated.

In the end though it is basically our right to enjoy media that we pay for. If I want to play a bunch of deviant sex sims...or even if I just want to play a game that has mature themes of romance and love...then I have a right to do so without being legislated and persecuted for doing so.

Evil Dead the Musical has some funny Posters...

Just a quick hot potato pass from the internet echo chamber here. Ok here we go. Got this from Neatorama who got it from Ads of the World. It's Poster Ads for the evil Dead musical. Totally genius! Check them out below:







Aaron, if you repost this I expect you pass on the echo chamber link back let's see how many layers of internet echo we can build up!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Guitar Hero On Tour Video is full of Suck.

This is...well this is pretty lame. I love Rock Band. I like Guitar Hero. But this...I just don't know what to say...I just don't see myself rocking out on my DS? Do you? Prepare to throw up a little in your mouth.

I think I recognize the "rocker" from Perversion...


One last link...This is fun.... (Originally posted on MySpace on Friday, December 01, 2006)

For those folks out there who are interested in all this ARG stuff I've been posting about here is what Wikipedia had to say about the Lost Experience ARG leading up to the thrid season of Lost...outside of I Love Bees which led up to the launch of Halo 2, I'd have to say that this is the most interesting ARG as Marketing Ploy I've read about...well that or maybe the Audi ARG , Now that was a good story...

more on ARGs (Originally posted on MySpace on Friday, December 01, 2006)

The Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive write up on ARGs. But like all things wiki its only as good (and as reliable) as the authors...but such is the world of ARGs...can you decipher truth from fiction?

For Raleigh there is this site which has SOME pictures. Actually this would be a good one to put in your RSS feeds (again I'll suggest google reader for RSS subscriptions). IT looks like this one is a little easier to digest than the more academic IGDA site I linked to earlier...

Happy reading.

ARG! (Originally posted on MySpace on Friday, December 01, 2006)

I was telling ol' Greg and Gen about the ARG (alternate reality game) phenomenon over the holiday. They seemed interested so I dug up this link. I am practicing my hyper link skills...let me know if this works. This site is a little dense, but it is the result of official research and I thought it was interesting.

What’s that. you ask...the video game industry...why yes I do have a couple of intersting(Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, November 30, 2006)

First off ol' Game|Life had this picture up that they grabbed from gamespot's PS3 portal:



Apparantly Micro$oft bought all the ad space around all the PS3 related items. The funny thing is that they only paid for it on the PS3 pages...it doesn't exist on any of the Nintendo or Microsoft or PC sections. I thought that was a pretty classic move.

Next up...a special note for Greg and Genevieve...looks like we found you're X-Mas present:


That's right strawberry shortcake DDR!!! wow!

On a final note, I got my fingered racing gloves which is good cause I can't feel the fingers on my right hand after last nights ride...it's been F'ing COLD!!!!

Thanksgiving Day 2006 pics...(Originally posted on MySpace on Wednesday, November 29, 2006)

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was a pretty significant experience. Greg and Genevieve came down from Washington and Becca's whole family came up from LA. We had a really great time considering myriad of INTENSE personalities involved. Things got a little crazy on Friday...but it had been a long time coming, and I'm glad we did it. Also include in this Thanksgiving day feast of pictures are some pics of breakfast with grandma and the EXTREMELY COLD trip that Becca and I took to Cambria (now pronounced CAHM-bria). Enjoy:











































Disneyland Pics!!! (Originally Posted on MySpace on Nov 29, 2006)

Posting these is just easier than emailing them to everyone. So here you go. I don't have to tell you we had an awesome time. It was disneyland. My only regret is that the Matterhonr was closed. Oh and the "New Improved" space mountain was pretty much the old space mountain with a new intro segment. Still lots of fun...but the best ride now goes to tower of terror. Anyway here's some pics in semi chronilogical order:





















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If anyone needs a higher rez version of these pics just send me an e-mail and I'll forward them to you.