Link Out (22/5/08)

May 23rd, 2008

shanghai city skyline

It’s another month and I have another handful of recommended readings to share with you. I figured that I’d also take this opportunity to make a brief apology. I must confess that I have been driving myself into the ground lately with this juggling act called life and as such I have been a little late responding to your comments and emails as well as putting out new content every 2 days. By the time this goes live though I should be well and truly back on the saddle. Thanks for bearing with me.

Also while I am talking off topic I would just like to say that I have been accepted into studying in ShangHai, China this September through to January. I will be living and studying in ?? district which is popular for its electronics. I’m very excited and I hope that this experience will allow me to talk about some interesting issues regarding video games in one of Asia’s most gorgeous cities.

As always, I have been storing some of these links since the end of the last Link Out which was over a month ago. So be aware that some may not be on the bleeding edge of gaming news.

We’ve won: get over it – The Guardian

With the release of Grand Theft Auto 4, us bloggers have naturally increased our receptiveness to the media’s portrayal of video games just to observe how out of touch they are with the average player. I’m pleased to say though that admist the RockStar bashing and parent protests a handful of major media outlets have actually got it right. One of my favorite such articles is this one written by Richard Bartle of The Guardian.

China’s Forgotten Gamers – ESkyCity

As I just mentioned I will be heading off to ShangHai this August (leaving in August, study in September) and if possible I would like to keep this blog alive during that time. If this is possible then I will probably write a few articles shedding light on the state of play in China. As a prelude though I found this article to be perfect for warming you all into the idea. 🙂

Abdullah’s Blogging: A Generation 1.5 Student Enters the Blogosphere

This journal is one that I selected for one of my University classes. The journal is a case study of a Somalian student study ESL (English second language) in an American high school and how blogging had allowed him and his peers to make the transition from a strong spoken language into a better form of academic writing.

This article as well as many others can be found in the Language Learning and Technology archives where there is a fantastic selection of journals. A lot of good reads in there.

Resident Evil Series Time Line

In my recent critique of Resident Evil Remake I mentioned that the journal entries littered around the mansion were so very compelling because it provided context to the haunting environments. This got me thinking about the series’ complete story, I had a solid idea of what had happened over the course of the series but I wanted to fully understand everything. So after a little searching I found a time line of the series which includes all backstory and journals featured within all of the Resident Evil games. Yes sure, I am spoiling the game’s storyline but considering that I kinda already knew what happened and was just after the finer details I don’t see a problem with it.

In anycase what I found was extremely comprehensive, I would guess that there is enough history here to fill an 80 paged book. So take a look if you need some more context. With this I have decided to play through the rest of the series.

David Hayter Interview

The man behind the voice of Solid Snake shares his thoughts on the Metal Gear series and his current work load. There’s a couple of nuggets of insight into the voice work behind Metal Gear inside which makes this worth the read. Hayter did also seemed quite immature in some of his remarks.

Wii Fit Reviewed by Everyday New Yorkers and Tourists – MTV Multiplayer

Being someone who previously sold electronics I always love the idea of having customers return to the store to tell me what they thought of the product that I had recommended for them. This article is similar to that sort of customer feedback. We should all be paying more attention to the critique of new players to games.

Prince of Persia Speed Art

I must say that I am impressed with the number of new, refreshing games being announced left, right and centre. It appears as though some developers may not be willing to wait until E3 this year to put all of their eggs in the one basket. This is probably a good idea too because it allows for better exposure. In anycase Ubisoft have recently announced a new, cel shaded Prince of Persia game which looks absolutely gorgeous. The following link shows how some of the conceptual artwork was made.

Analyzing Contributions towards Negative Video Game Culture

May 20th, 2008

devil may cry

Video game culture; I find this so awfully difficult to write about yet so compelled to submit to the keyboard every time. Culture, culture, what is culture? It is an issue that I have been grappling with in this blog a couple of times already, each time concluding with mixed results. This time around though I think that I have formed a better methodology to approach the topic so let’s see what happens.

So Why Culture?

My interest in video game culture recently received a jump start when I read an article from Write the Game’s Keira Peney which summarized the various opinions on video game culture among us bloggers. Unfortunately I can’t say that I have read much on how other bloggers feel about gamer culture, which is probably why this article has opened a whole new can of worms which I’d like to explore.

It interested me why so many other people were also interested in gaming culture, it kinda surprised me a little as well. Once I got to the end of the article though and continued on to read the other articles referenced in the paper it all became clear. We have all been looking at culture from the same mind set.

What you’ll notice if you read any of the articles (including this one by me) is that we are all concerned about the growing negative social behaviour growing within our industry. Be it video game fandom, the negative overtones in online play and/or juvenile behaviour converging around online discussion boards; these are all issues of concern. We are all concerned because such behaviour is devouring the reputation of our industry and is restraining the growth of our identity as people. So therefore, in order to better understand this situation we have turned to culture (on the whole) as the answer.

Now that I am conscious of this I would like to step back and provide my own ideas about what elements within video game culture has spurred on this epidemic. Culture is, of course a complex issue and cannot be defined simply by a list of trends and occurrences. I’d like to acknowledge that. I’d also like to point out that culture is messy and you might notice, it is something that cannot be defined hence why I have had trouble differentiating video game culture as a whole from this negative social activity (another facet of video game culture itself).

What I am posting though is what I see to me dominate contributors to these issues. If you have your own ideas then be sure to let me know below or via email.
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Posted in Culture | Comments (2)
Tags: co-operative play, competitive gaming, multiplayer

Why People Listen to Video Game Music

May 18th, 2008

video game music

From my experience there appears to be this perception (even among gamers) that listening to video game music is strange and perhaps even backwards. Its one of those stereotypes that I haven’t touched on yet. I used to have this perception a few years ago when the only video game music available to me were remixes and MIDIs from sites like VG Music. Although if you do remember back to the days of MIDIs then you can understand why I am partly justified, they simply sounded awful.

But since video game soundtracks have slowly become more widely available and the overall sound quality of rips and remixes has improved my interest has increased over the years. To the point that I have a small little collection of video game OSTs (original soundtrack) on my shelf. So I wanted to share with you some reasons as to why I listen to video game music because if you’re a gamer that isn’t remotely interested in video game music then, simply put, you’re missing out. So I want to offer a few short reasons as to why I love game music.

The Nostalgic Factor

I personally love anything that is nostalgic and music is one of the strongest mediums for nostalgia, perhaps because its much more easier to become immersed in sound. Not all old game music is nostalgic simply because its old. It all depends on the player and their past experiences. For example, I would find the music from Totally Rad or Ducktales much more nostalgic than say Rygar; an old game in which I have never played.

Great Ambient Music

What I have noticed when listening to some video game music is that it makes for great ambient music. Most game music isn’t made with the intention of constantly grabbing your attention, its made to create the mood and atmosphere within the game environment. Which is why game music is great to set the mood.

Game music more often than not lacks any vocals which is great as general background music. For example, sometimes I want to write a blog article but not be distracted by lyrics so I just play some appropriate game music.

Genuinely Good Music

Sometimes video game music tracks are just downright excellent and deserve a place on your normal playlist. Licensed music tracks are a good example of this. Surprisingly quite often I’ll be playing a game which features a selection of awesome songs which I want to play outside of the game. So I jump onto iTunes and snap them up. Other times I just throughly enjoy the music.

Posted in Editorial | Comments (3)
Tags: video game music

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