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Media Attention: Vaguely Interesting
Monday / 01.06.03 / 06:19PM / Joe
 I'm having trouble concentrating today, because all I really want to do is be at home playing Vice City. The last couple of weeks have been something of a Vice City rebirth for me. At first I was completely unimpressed - it just felt like a game I've already played - but now that I've dug deep into the mission structure, advanced the plot along, and purchased tons of property, I'm really into it. It also helps that Mike and I are in a sort of informal Vice City race, as we unlock new features and help each other along. I found the Keepie-Uppy Beach Ball first, so I think I'm ahead.
I still say the cops are too aggressive on the 2-star wanted level. Especially since you can always just drive off a 1-star. The all-out assault they launch on 2 just forces you to quickly locate one of the bribe pickups. I guess that adds a realistic thought process to the game, since you have to plan your criminal activities so as to attract the least amount of attention from the law.
And then there's the Instant Death whenever you hit water. GTA4 really needs a swim function.
Speaking of future GTA games, I was mulling over the potential of an online version. First of all, it can't be massively multiplayer; that would degrade too easily. I'd like to see it team-based, like PSO. You and three fellow players form a gang and tackle the missions together. And there's got to be voice chat... but get this, you can only voice chat when you're on the same screen with your pals (and your avatar's mouth moves when you talk!) So when you split up, no more live voice chat... unless everybody has a cell phone in their inventory.
Found an interesting article today (through ludology.org) about the lack of scholarly language with which to discuss games. I'm a sucker for these sorts of articles, although I imagine you may not be, so here's some choice quotes:
This leads to a dangerous cycle of me-tooism and product stagnation. The press has no language to discuss the creative aspect of game development, so it settles for discussing technology features. Gamers consume the press and buy what it tells them is good. Publishers assume that this is what the gaming community wants and in turn pressure studios to produce more of it. The result is creative stagnation and genre gridlock that produces the yearly floods of follow-the-leader titles in the form of real-time strategy after real-time strategy, shooter after shooter, survival horror after survival horror, while creatively ingenious offerings like Thief, Project Eden, Ico, Planescape Torment, Alice, and Dungeon Keeper, if lacking in blockbuster technology, are ignored by the press and therefore the gamers.
The problem is self-propagating. Gamers who consume a technology-fetishist press may fail to recognize the benefits of a critical vocabulary associated with creative game development. Therefore, technology is seen as the “more important” aspect of game development. In truth, technology and creative are equal and inseparable aspects of development. The game as an entity cannot exist without both; remove the technology and the game becomes a novel. Remove the creativity and the game becomes a spreadsheet.
And this one...
New media are rarely accepted as mainstream immediately – two recent examples include comic books and rock ’n roll music. Both began as fringe entertainment and, as they increased in popularity, were subjected to correspondingly increased vilification by outsiders. Opponents saw the media as a threat to their sensibilities or, on occasion, their livelihoods. In the case of the examples above, the challenges from the outside largely took the form of claims that comics and rock music were subliminally harming young people.
Gaming has this problem as well; many of its detractors claim without any compelling evidence that violent acts can be inspired by electronic gaming. In some cases, opponents of the medium can point to actual instances of violence that appear to have a connection to gaming: witness remarks made by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold prior to the Columbine incident – a taped conversation between the two stated that the shootings would be “just like DOOM,” indicating, apparently, that DOOM was responsible for it all. In other cases, gaming is blamed without any evidence to back up the accusation – law enforcement and right-wingniks alike suggested that video gaming was at the core of the recent Washington, D.C. sniper killings simply because some games call invincibility “God” mode and the sniper wrote “I am God” on a tarot card. The fact that the snipers, now in custody, had apparently gone on their spree without any Max Payne-fueled animosity toward the world inexplicably never made it into the press.
Indeed! Although comic books still aren't quite as accepted as the article suggests. When was the last time you read a comic book? I do love the finger pointing at the media here... it's just too easy for reviewers and reporters to skim the surface of gaming issues. There's basically two video game stories they tell. Either Game X is terrible and damaging because it has violent content, or Console X is making/losing money. They only ever take the cheap moral stand or the boring business report (usually around Christmastime.)
To revert to the comics metaphor again, it's like whenever the media reports on comics, they have to use the old BAM, POW, BOOM sound effects. I'll never forgive that fucking Batman TV show for creating that monster. Articles like that are a sign of change, however. No one was writing about the scholarly aspects of video games ten years ago.
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