Meditative Gamer: Passage

I'd like to introduce a new segment to this site called "Meditative Gamer." This is where I get more philosophical, more contemplative about gaming and what it means to us. If a game affected me in a certain way, or if there's a certain sentiment or feeling in the gaming community I want to discuss, I'll post it here. This is going to be more serious than most of my other posts, but if you stick with it, I'm sure you'll be able to get a lot out of it.

There's been a contest going on recently called Gamma 256, where game entries could not exceed a resolution of 256X256 pixels, and where the most unusual resolutions were encouraged. Well, one of these entries was highlighted on Ian Bogost's site - it's called Passage, and I heartedly encourage you to download it and play it. See what you think. I don't really want to reveal what it's about here, as that would spoil it. It needs to be experienced individually. Make sure you have the sound on your computer turned up, too. If you want to discuss this in the comments section, feel free. I just recommend that you play it. Above all, meditate on it. See what it means to you. I might come back to this in a few days and discuss it in more depth - I know how much of a tease my vague statements can be.

(Also, once you finish with the game, read the Creator's Statement on the Passage website. It's worth your time.)

Rock Band and ARGH (the two are not related)

There was a game convention in Philadelphia and I didn't know about it? There was a game convention, complete with playable Rock Band, a huge collection of arcade games, game tournaments, several guests, and even a debate with Jack Thompson, and I didn't go? WHY DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS? Oh, I could've gone so easily, and it didn't even cost that much! I'm sure it would've been an awesome time, and that debate would have to have been a highlight. I think I'm going to bash my head against the wall soon, but first:

(My camera is a piece of crap, sorry)

Well, I did say I missed Rock Band at the convention, but I didn't miss it on the University of Pennsylvania campus. They had a truck set up near the main bookstore with some Rock Band demo units in the back and with a stage in front where you could make a fool with yourself. There were cameras and some recording equipment out there as well, and according to some signs I saw, they were looking to record some participants for this MTV contest or something. I didn't really care about the specifics, to be honest. However, I did care about the game, and while I didn't get the chance to play it (curses!), I did spend some time watching people monkey around with it. I'm sure none of this will be new to people who've been keeping up with the game, but hey, I haven't, and maybe you haven't too!

Well, it looks like a fun game: you get a bunch of friends together, have them pick out a song to play, and get them to hammer on a bunch of plastic instruments. The guitars themselves are modeled after Fender Stratocasters, and they look pretty cool overall. The buttons aren't bright colors like the Guitar Hero controllers, either, so they look slightly more realistic, if that even matters. I was also surprised to see that the drum sticks were authentic and not plastic at all. While you will be playing on plastic instruments, they certainly don't look like toys, which is a pretty good thing.

The demo on display only had five songs to choose from. I don't know how many times "Black Hole Sun" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" were played when I was there, but it sure seemed like a lot. You can select the difficulty level separate from each instrument, which I thought was helpful, and the menus seemed pretty easy to navigate as well. As for the game itself, it's pretty much what you'd expect: the instrument players hit their notes/beats in time with the song according to what's on screen, and the singer does his or her best to stay and pitch and sing the lyrics. All of it seemed pretty accurate and easy to work with. When one person screwed up a lot, only they dropped out of the song; everyone else kept playing. At the end of one playthrough I witnessed, there was a jam session of sorts, with the players just madly mashing on their instruments and and the singer belting out whatever was lodged in his throat. It was a kind of bonus round, really, and it looked like a good way to cool off after a long song.

But once I continued watching people play, I came to a realization about who this game might be for. Guitar Hero, I think, leans heavily towards a lot more "harder" rock and some classic rock, particularly with metal songs. In Guitar Hero III alone you've got Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Dead Kennedys, Smashing Pumpkins, Dragonforce, and White Zombie, for example, with some stuff like the Rolling Stones and Santana on the side. While I'm seeing a lot of the same bands and even a few songs in both games (hey, both have "Mississippi Queen" and "Cherub Rock"), I'm also noticing some "lighter" stuff in Rock Band as well - Boston, Rush, the Police, and the aforementioned Bon Jovi. This is not to say any of these bands are bad or anything, I'm just saying the the song list in Rock Band seems to have a wider appeal than the one in Guitar Hero III does. Check them out and see what I mean.

Granted, I'm not a big music nut, so my analysis could be way off, but Guitar Hero seems to be aiming for mainly the hard rockers and the metal heads, while Rock Band is definitely going for a wider demographic. I suppose part of this has to do with the fact that there's a singer thrown into the mix. I imagine your throat would get pretty raspy if you tried to sing some of the harder metal stuff in Guitar Hero. But this title is also getting published by EA, who does often appeal to larger groups of people, and Harmonix, the developers of the game, admitted this themselves: "We'll be covering a great breadth, from metal to classic rock to Southern rock to everything in between." If this isn't a sign that they wanted Rock Band to appeal to a wider audience, I don't know what is. Maybe that'll give Rock Band a certain niche to stand out in.

Not sure about the price tag, though. $170 is less than you would expect for a full game, three fake instruments, and a microphone, but I'm not sure how well it'll go over with your average consumer. We'll see come this holiday season.

Well this is a surprise.

Today suddenly just got worse. What this means for Bioware and Pandemic, I'm not sure, but I can't say I'm happy about the purchases. I hope that they can still be relatively independent, but nowadays, I can't be so sure...

And there was much rejoicing (yay)

Halo 3. Do I need to say more? But it looks like I'm doing it anyway, so here goes: already we're getting stories about how people have lined up for launch events and such, which doesn't surprise me in the least bit. I mean, given the money Microsoft funneled into the marketing of the game, and with all the pre-existing hype for the franchise, you know it's going to sell well. And of course, most review sites are jumping on the praise bandwagon with the lowest score (as of this writing) being an 88 out of 100.

But that's not to say I'm cynical about the game selling well. The franchise has become such a phenomenon that it's become recognized in the public eye for quite some time now, increasing recognition of the video game industry as a whole. And yeah, the series is pretty fun. Granted, I'm no big Halo fan, but Bungie got some stuff right. It was one of the first shooters to really bring a PC experience to a home console, and it's a pretty well polished game as well. Of course, it's fun, especially in multiplayer. I don't think the series is all that remarkable to me (it just feels like another futuristic shooter), but there's nothing really wrong with it at all.

Well, I'm sure some could argue that having Halo get all this recognition and respect takes away from other, supposedly better games, but I'm not going into that territory right now, mostly because I don't think that's happening. Halo is certainly popular among the more "casual" gamer types (I'm sure there are a lot that are really into it at my college), but hey, they're having fun, and we're having fun with both Halo and other games, so it all works out. Besides, a lot of the other games are marketed more towards a hardcore audience anyway - would you ever want a game like Deus Ex to have its own Mountain Dew flavor?

I read the news today, oh boy...

Sooooo...lots of stuff going on from when I last posted. Let's discuss a few things, shall we?

• The ESA is ramping up their lobbying efforts, it looks like, and while I like some of what's being discussed (First Amendment protections yay), others are a little worrying to me. Virtual property taxation? The first sale doctrine? Since I haven't found out much more about it, I'm just hoping this'll turn out to be good rather than bad. We already know what happened when certain copyright owners lobbied to increase copyright terms...
  
• The Tokyo Game Show is going on, and lots of good stuff is to be had: Metal Gear Solid 4 playable, Metal Slug 7 (for the DS!) shows up, Soul Calibur 4 looks the same but different, Mr. Destructoid hangs with the booth babes there...lots of stuff going on, and it's too much to mention here.
  
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl is turning out better and better by the day: first we get a music selection feature, and then we have confirmed online play, and we're still getting all kinds of new characters out the wazoo right now, especially with Snake being reconfirmed today. His attacks look more tactical than we're used to with mines and rockets and such...this could get interesting.
• SNK Playmore USA announced a lot of great stuff: the aforementioned Metal Slug 7, another King of Fighters collection, a pack of old SNK arcade games under the moniker "SNK Arcade Classics" (I'm a sucker for retro compilations), and Samurai Shodown 2 for Xbox Live! Of course, we're getting Neo Geo titles for the Virtual Console as well, so hooray.
• Resident Evil 5 is now officially said to be set in Haiti. I honestly don't think this setting is racist, like some have said. After all, many of the original beliefs about voodoo and zombies originated in Haiti, so I think this decision makes some sense. I'd have to see more of the game before I make a final judgment, though.
  
• I think I'm going to buy a Sega Master System soon. It couldn't stand up to the prowess and console monopoly of Nintendo, but it still has some neat stuff for it. Of course, it's just going to add to all the stuff I already know...and God knows I have enough game clutter lying around already. But then again, I already committed to buy Zillion and the 2nd Alex Kidd game...so yeah.

And to finish off on that last note about the Master System, I think it's prudent to link to one of my favorite pictures...Brandon Bird, I salute you. Check out some of his other work, too, it's good stuff. (Hope you don't mind me linking to you, you're awesome!)

I'll try to actually get video footage and such up for you all soon, but I still need to get my equipment ready for it. Hopefully by that time I'll stop being such a writing hack and actually entertain you guys! A glorious day indeed...

National Video Games Day!...wait, what?

Well, it's news to me: apparently today, September 12th, is National Video Games Day, at least according to the people over at Holiday Insights and American Greetings. Um, okay? So instead of celebrating games everyday (like I do), we can focus our attentions on one very specific and obscure holiday to send goofy cards to each other. What better way to prove your smacktalking deathmatch skills to your friends than by sending them this heartwarming sentiment! Yeah, this sure feels like a Hallmark Holiday to me, especially since there's another so-called gamer holiday already: July 8th's Video Games Day. Nope, not similar to each other in the least bit!

One last thing...about the weird card with the spaceship flying out of the screen. ("Nah, Mom, that happens all the time!") Well, the animation on it kind of syncs up with the Tears for Fears version of "Mad World." Don't ask me why I know that.

Gaming on the Rise

(NOTE: By "casual" games, I mean stuff that appeals both aesthetically and gameplay-wise to a wider audience, and that is more accessible and can be played with for minutes at a time. "Hardcore" games are your 50-hour long affairs with gratuitous blood and gore and more complicated controls. These are generalizations, but it's just to give you an idea by what I mean.)

I recently flew back to college again for another semester, and while I was waiting for my plane to depart at the airport, I noticed something peculiar: normal, everyday people playing video games on handheld machines. Now, you might ask, "why is this surprising? They're just passing the time away while waiting for a flight." Yes, this is true, but I've never really seen many other people (besides kids) playing games like this before, and I see it as the sign of a growing trend: gaming is on the rise in popularity among adults. I guess I've never noticed this before, and while I've heard about the rising popularity of casual games, I guess it's never really filtered through to me until now that non-gamers are playing games in their spare time. Perhaps being in this hardcore bubble for too long makes you forget about the world and the big picture. Gaming has started to become socially popular, and I only think it can get bigger from here.

What do we owe this rise to? Of course, casual games are a part of this. PC titles like The Sims and Internet games like Bejeweled have been captivating people of all ages for years now, but it's only been recently that console and handheld systems have been enticing consumers and non-gamers, in part thanks to a shifting focus on those who play games. The hardcore market is fairly saturated right now, but companies like Nintendo recognized the potential that could be tapped out of other groups. The meteoric popularity of the Wii and DS, the increased media coverage of consoles, the greater public exposure...video games are getting noticed more these days. Of course, we've been hearing and talking about games for years now, but not in such a way as this, and I think I know why: it lies in many of these games being more accessible. You don't need to spend hours learning how to play a game, and you can just pick up and play at any time. Traditional games just don't have that much appeal to working adults with so little spare time, but their greater disposable income still allows them to buy games, so in many cases they go more casual. The market's growing, and casual games account for one reason this is happening.

Maybe I should put my thoughts into context. At the airport, I saw a number of people playing games. Of course, you have your typical grade-school kid playing Pokémon on his Game Boy. This is nothing new. But there were older individuals playing games as well. A flight attendent, waiting at the gate among the rest of the passengers, was using his PSP to watch a movie and play a little. A college-aged student frittered her time away, if only for a little while, with her DS. And most notably, I noticed a couple playing together on some game with their own PSPs. Now, these people didn't seem like the hardcore gaming type to me. (Yes, appearances can be deceiving, but for the sake of example, bear with me.) They were normal individuals waiting for their flights, just like I was. But instead of reading a book or listening to music while waiting, they opted to play a few games and have a little fun while doing so. If there's one personal sign to me that games are getting more popular in the general public, this is it.

I'm aware that this is just anecdotal evidence. If you're looking for more hard figures, try researching the sales figures on games like Brain Age and Guitar Hero and tell me what you find. See what I mean? We're not just seeing your stereotypical gamers playing these: we're seeing moms, dads, sisters, music fans, elderly...we're seeing more varied groups of people legitimately playing games in their spare time. As much as some people proclaim this to be a foreboding sign of doom, I can't really see too much negative out of this. Even though casual games are getting popular at the expense of "hardcore" games, gaming is starting to be recognized more and more. We'll still have our Bioshocks and Metal Gears to fall back on, but those who won't play these games will get to enjoy themselves too. I'm wondering what the future will bring...

Of Copy Protection and Consumer Rights

Story updated: Things aren't all they seem to be. See the edit below for details, but the bulk of this blog post is still valid, I think.

I stumbled across this on Kotaku today: apparently a poster on the 2K Forums installed Bioshock on his computer under an admin account, and then his brother tried to play it on a different account. It sounds like a pretty normal and safe thing to do, right? Well, the game asked for the serial number again, presumably for one of the 5 allowed activations the game gives you. (If you're not aware, Bioshock uses SecuROM for copy protection, and only allows 5 "activations" to be active at one time. The game will prevent you from installing it anymore than that.) Now, this is pretty ridiculous. He bought the game, and most PC games allow people to install them under an admin account for use under normal accounts, so why is the game forcing him to use one of his activations? You can buy a DVD and let other people watch it without them having to buy it. You can buy the 360 version of Bioshock and have other people play it without buying it. So why can't you do the same thing on a computer? Well, according to a moderator on the 2K forums:

"The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased the game. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?"

I'm astounded. I'm astounded that someone at 2K even responded in this way. After all the DRM issues Bioshock has faced since it was released, and after all the ire 2K has raised among PC users...you know, I'm not even sure it makes sense anymore. Using the game in this way is clearly fair use. No one is copying the game illegally, and no one is trying to con 2K out of a sale. It's just that no one in their right minds would buy a game, a DVD, a book, etc. again if someone in their household already bought the exact same thing. Why? Because it's right there. The other person can just borrow the copy of the item someone else has, use it for a while, and then return it. Society as a whole has this expectation, and I don't think it's ungrounded: it's an inconvenience to buy something again that someone close to us already owns. Imagine if your brother bought a DVD, but the company who made it wouldn't let you watch it because your brother was the one who bought it, not you. Imagine how that would make you feel. I am aware that these are not direct comparisons, as we don't own PC games, the companies just license them to us. But we do own the physical media they exist on.

I've been reading the thread topic on the original forum, and there's definitely a lot of discontent with what's going on here. Some people are refusing to buy the game because of this, and a few are even saying that they won't buy any games published by 2K anymore. After all this trouble, I'm not sure I want to buy the PC version of Bioshock myself. You have to be careful with customers and make sure you aren't trampling on their rights too much. If you do, your company will gain bad press, and that's the last thing any publisher wants. Well, aside from their games selling poorly, but you know what I mean.

I'm not sure DRM works too well most of the time anyway. Even with protection like StarForce and SecuROM, someone is almost invariably going to pirate the game and post it online for people to download. The way I see it, if the game is good, and if it's publicized well enough, people will buy it. I'm not usually one to say "the free market will decide what will sell well," but in this case I think it holds true. If handled the wrong way, DRM can cut into legitimate sales of the product and could make some players pretty ticked off. I'm very interested in the way developer Stardock approached copy protection: they didn't use it at all in Galactic Civilizations II, and company owner Brad Wardell said that most people who play the game illegally weren't going to buy it anyway. Even Bethesda decided to have just a DVD check for Oblivion, and look how well that sold. All I'm saying is that publishers should just have faith that if their game is good enough, people will buy it, and that DRM, while intending to prevent piracy, often leads to discontent and animosity in consumers. I do think publishers have a right to protect their work from piracy, of course, and I am in no way advocating piracy (I think copying their intellectual property is wrong), but the copy protection we have in place now just isn't working out. Maybe we need to think this through a bit, before we lose the good will of consumers.

I should also note that the message the moderator posted on the 2K forums was originally deleted. Make of that what you will.

EDIT: Apparently I spoke too soon, it looks like the moderator who made the comment was an outside contractor, not someone who works at 2K. This is still inexcusable, but at least it's not as bad as it seemed before. And 2K is investigating the guy, so that's something.

NOW LOADING

Give me a day or so to post something again; I'm back at college again and I need a little time to finish up all this moving in stuff before I can post some new entries. Not only that, but I plan to start posting some video features on here very soon! Stay tuned, and don't click that mouse away from here just yet.

My love affair with Samus (we're so good together, you and I)

Okay, so I guess Metroid Prime 3 came out earlier this week or something. WHY DID I NOT REMEMBER THIS? I'm a sucker for all things Metroid, and in fact, I own basically every game in the series. Yes, even Metroid Prime Pinball (which rocked, by the way). There's just something about the series that's so appealing...maybe it's the isolation you feel being sent to a planet teeming with unusual secrets. Or it could be the unique gadgets and weapons you pick up. Or it could be the backtracking.



Wait...backtracking? Well, yes. And I'm not crazy either. See, when you start out in Metroid games, you usually have a scant amount of equipment and weapons on you. That means you can only access certain areas to begin with. But as you gain more and more items and abilities, the list of places you can go expands, and by going back and revisiting areas you've been to before, you get to see more and more incredible things on your journey. In Metroid, backtracking is good, and I think it wouldn't be a good Metroid game without it. This sense of progression empowers you, but it also entices you and makes you want to explore so much more of the world you're in. Diehard fans such as myself will know what I'm talking about.



So I gotta pick this up today or something. I've heard all about it in previews and reviews, how the fantastic art style looks, about how the game is streamlined and controls like a dream, an actual decent story...see, I'm salivating already. If Metroid was Pavlov, I'd be one of his dogs. I just can't get enough of the series. I guess that's why I decided to buy Super Metroid again on the Virtual Console, despite the fact that I already own it on my SNES. I'm a sad, sad man, and yet strangely, I don't regret it.

And no, I'm not a paid spokesman for Nintendo. Though it would seem like I'd make a good one, right? A gushing look at one of my favorite video game franchises? Hmmm...how about I balance this out with something. Uh...I think the Classic NES Series release of Metroid on the GBA was a waste of money, especially when you could just pick up the awesome Metroid: Zero Mission, beat it, and then play Metroid on your GBA that way. And Prime 2 wasn't as good as Prime 1. Yes! I have balanced this blog post. Well, kinda, if by "balance" you mean "show two minor negatives among a bunch of positives."

Which is something I tend to do.

Postmodern Gaming, or, what the hell is going on here?

I think most of us don't really consider how normal our games really are. I mean, we take up swords and guns, we defeat these scourges of evil, we save the world, and...wait, wait, that's not normal at all! Well, you get my point. Although the plot, settings, and features of games change all the time, games follow much of the same conventions they always have. Nowadays, we usually go from point A to point B, save this person, kill this baddie, and we call it a day. These games follow the conventions of their own in-game universes, and they don't usually talk to the player directly or mess around with their psyches too much.

But not all games are like that...oh no, not at all. I think we can all agree that Hideo Kojima has done some pretty weird stuff in the Metal Gear series. Where else could a boss read a memory card filled with your saves from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? What about the plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 itself? I can't help but think of the number of times Kojima has broken the fourth wall, and of all the times the Metal Gear games have been just plain weird and unusual. Call it what you like, but it has a strange impact on the player, that's for sure. Somehow breaking all the rules draws you into the game even more...at least when I wasn't searching for Meryl's codec number and didn't know what the hell they were talking about, but that's a story for another day.

But are there any other examples we know of? Well, I might have one: Takeshi's Castle. Released in 1986 for the Famicom, it's a weird, experimental title designed by actor and director Takeshi Kitano, and...let's not mince words here, it's pretty messed up. You have to sing into the Famicom's microphone (on the second controller) for a hour without stopping, hit a button 20,000 times to beat a boss, and...well, just see for yourself. Trust me, this game breaks so many rules and tortures you so much. From a guy like Takeshi Kitano, who has his own unusual philosophical views in his movies, this kind of makes sense. But only somewhat. It's still a pretty devious game. As a piece of postmodern gaming, I think it gives Kojima a run for his money.

Oh yeah, that link I posted on Takeshi's Castle? It goes to Polas' Goodtime Retro Cafe, which, despite hardly updating EVER, is still an underrated, humorous game site. Check out some of their stuff on Karnov (which is weird enough in itself).

How do we really view games?

GamePolitics.com is one of my favorite "serious" game sites, and for good reason: despite being presented by the Entertainment Consumers Association, they seem to be fairly objective and have a good grasp on issues relating to the game industry today. Today they responded to a piece Ian Bogost wrote about how hardware manufacturers are the real reason for why there is some censorship in games; that is, the manufacturers won't allow any AO-rated games to appeal on their consoles. (This is related to Manhunt 2, can't you tell?). Now, I generally agree with what they say: this is a complex issue, and part of problem lies in how some of the general public perceive games as merely children's entertainment. As GamePolitics states:

"So the game industry finds itself under a microscope. The issue of sales to children is a big one for critics like Leland Yee and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. And for the Federal Trade Commission, which studies the industry’s marketing practices in relation to kids.

For their part, the console makers don’t want to be accused of licensing porn on a machine that’s sold at Toys’R'Us. The major game publishers are largely public corporations that don’t want to be seen as being in the porn creation business, either. Developers have largely adapted to these parameters, although some are clearly frustrated."

Clearly, we have much to figure out.

I'd disagree, however, with their belief that the term" video game" needs to be reevaluated. For one, the term "video game" has stuck, and I don't see it going away any time soon. Also, when we talk about sports, we talk about "sports games," don't we? Our culture feels they aren't just for children, yet we still call them "games." Like GamePolitics states, much of the industry's origins came from the toy business, and being marketed as such for many years, gaming has traditionally been referred to as a kid's activity. I'm guessing that's how the perception of video games today came about. Changing these views on games might help earn them some more legitimacy as a hobby and interest.

What can we do, as consumers, to fix this perception of video games? I'm not sure writing to the console makers directly will solve anything - they seem pretty firm on these policies right now. But raising awareness about these issues would be worth it, and having people know that games aren't just for children will help considerably. That might be all we can do right now.

What is Imjerage?

Imjerage is another blog that talks about video games. Okay, so we've all seen that before. But Imjerage strives to be more than that. I'll strive to bring you more to gaming than simple news or previews. I'll try to be as objective and non-biased as I can when I report on gaming news and events. And I'll try to make people laugh: no sense in being serious all the time, right? So come along, grab your favorite snack, and sit down and enjoy: with your viewership, Imjerage will know no bounds.

And yeah, if I'm being pompous or boring, tell me. No one likes a boring, droning gamer.