Blue Wizard : Second Impressions

http://sethflynnbarkan.com

Blue Wizard is about to Die is a book of poems about Video Games by Seth 'Fingers Flynn Barkan.  One thing i didn't say in my first impressions of this book is that these poems are pretty much EXACTLY what I'm going for with this blog.  Or, at least, with a lot of what I've written.  Particularly the memory posts.  The visceral, the nostalgia, the sense of memory, of childhood daydreams.  Teen Angst and vulgarity.   It's all in this book.  Really quite remarkable.

Video games are a refuge, but they were also a calling.  When I was young, many days there wasn't anything I'd rather be doing than playing an awesome video game.  And then other times, they were a way to escape when the rest of the world seemed shitty.

It should be noted that, while much of the spirit of this book is right on the marker, by now, I've really noticed a divergence from my own experience. First off, Flynn Barkan has a much deeper connection to arcade games than I do.  While I played plenty of arcades at the bowling alley, pizza places or TILT, our former Mall Hangout, I never got particularly good at any arcade games.  I just didn't have the time, the funds, or the skill.  

I've never considered myself to be a particularly skilled video game player.  I enjoy competing at games like Goldeneye, Mario Kart or even Street Fighter II, but I regularly have my ass handed to me by friends like Cortez, and later ZorTheRed or Ghost.   I'm not the worst, but I'm certainly not the best.  This, I learned early on.  The author of Blue Wizard, on the other hand, spends some time illustrating his expertise at various arcade games.  Additionally, he gets pretty lifestyle-gritty.  Smoking, doing drugs, that kind of thing.  Things that I don't associate with nostalgiac video game good times.

Finally, in this entire book (complete with citations and a list of the best games ever - nice to read)  He mentions an RPG all of once.  Well there you go.  That's the difference.  While I enjoy action games as much as the next guy, I also have spent equal amounts of time just playing RPG games.  RPGs made up a significant piece of the game-times pie that I baked for myself.  This is a portion of gaming not at all represented in Blue Wizard is about to Die. 

So, after the novelty wears off, I see that this author and myself are really quite different.  However, I don't think this is a bad thing.  Actually, it's a good thing!  A testimate to the variety of gamer identities out there.  And I don't have to like everything he does to appreciate his work. Which I do!  And I think you will too.   

-D

Stressing The Right Moves

cool box art

Today I was wondering about how complex computers are, from the ground up. And how, just to make a simple chess game, there are procedures upon procedures.  To get the display down, and then all the rules, all the if/then/else statements.  

Then I thought of a funny idea:  a computer chess game that does not have any of the rules programmed into it.  Really, it's just a simulator of a chess board.  So, the players have to be the ones to remove pieces when they are taken, or to call check, or to make sure the other is moving the pieces appropriately.  There's something I really like about this.  I guess it plays on my expectations of what a computer-game of chess would be, what the computer will handle and what I have to do myself.  It's a world simulator, with a chess board in it.  

This train of thought sprung, fully formed while pondering my frustrations working with game making software.  In this case, it's Flixel that's giving me trouble.  This is the program that Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka of Anodyne used, and I left that game saying to myself:  I wanna make a zelda clone too!  I still do.  But boy, I couldn't even get started with Flixel.  It's like my adult onset ADHD kicks in, and I can't seem to follow the instructions.  Or, look for new, better, updated instructions.  Every game design software I use is just too complex.

This is also frustrating because I'm not a complete stranger to the world of programming.  In High School, some fifty years ago.. wait, no.  fifteen years ago, I took a computer programming class.  I loved it!  We used a program called Pascal, which was text-based, and later, Delphi, which had a graphical component.  Pascal was great, most of the terminology was intuitive, and Delphi was just Pascal with graphics!  

So, the first thing I did, of course, was to produce an RPG.  Well, a battle game anyway.  It was fun.  There was a party of four, (whom I named after the members of the band Pearl Jam) and they battled miscellaneous enemies.  Bats, goblins, kobolds and the like.  I think the menu options were 'fight' or 'special' and each character had a different special move.  Double strike, attack all -- stuff like that.  And they could gain experience and raise levels.  pretty entertaining.  I really liked programming.

In college, we had to use C++, and we didn't even have computers in our lecture hall.  We had to do it all at home.  I hated C++, found it to be not intuitive at all.  Perhaps I was spoiled by Pascal.  I also was out of the house for the first time and prone to... distraction.  Anyway, I switched to an English major at the end of that year, and the rest is, as they say, history. 

So, is it folly to think I could get back into programming?  I can't tell.  But I do miss it.  Most especially, I miss creating systems, and interlacing them.  I never pursued graphics, but I was really happy to make the numbers move around in fun ways.  To give input and receive an output.  And to come up with an idea, and work out how to execute it.  It's a really cool frame of mind, programming.

Oh well. Whether or not I make a return to programming, you can be sure that I will write about it.  

hasta pasta,

-D

Gamer Identity 4A

When I read Conklederp's First Post, it got me to thinking about my own gaming identity.  Since then, I've had this topic brewing in the back of my head.  First, I pondered the subject of gender in games.  This subject sure is a minefield, but there has been some pushback.  The money raised from the kickstarter for Feminist Frequency's proposed series on video games far exceeded their original goal. This shows a demonstrated interest in breaking down negative females stereotypes and creating a safe place for female gamers to participate.  Fortunately, the internet has also provided a forum for different Gamers to express themselves.  As a greater number of women identify themselves as gamers and make their voices heard, in turn, there will be a great number of ways in which they identify and express themselves within the lense of gaming.

However, my focus has shifted away from Gender in gaming, and more toward my own personal identity.  What sort of gamer am I?  As I play games, and post on this website, I've noticed certain trends.  One is that I like to criticize things.  This has been going on my whole life, I used to catch a lot of shit from my sisters for it.  Another thing is that I am very much a retro-gamer.  I don't put much effort into catching the speeding train of the latest and greatest in the gaming world.  My hard-core gaming days are long behind me, but I still care a lot, and, more importantly, think I know what really matters in games.  This has led me to the conclusion that I am a Cranky Old Man gamer.

Not unlike Cranky Kong himself, I am many years out of my depth. About the time Donkey Kong Country came out, I felt I was on top of the gaming world, I knew everything that was worth knowing, I was confident and life was good.  Over the years, I've fallen out of touch, but I still feel very passionately about video games and what they have to offer.  Fortunately, I have been kept afloat by emulators and indie games.  Playing these games with a critical eye, I hope to get closer to answer the question:  what makes games so great?

Until then, I'll be in my rocking chair, with my controller on my lap.  Telling you what's wrong and what's right in the world of gaming.  Even if I don't really know what I'm talking about, I can wave my cane for emphasis.