You Know What? Flying Is Weird.

I was sitting outside yesterday morning, mainly because it wasn't raining and it wasn't cold.  It might be the start of the "Drinking Coffee Out on the Deck in the Morning Because the Cat Wants Us to Go Outside" time of year.  Yes, the cat will hang out by the sliding door and meow at us after we're awake wanting us to open the door so he can go outside and sit on the deck with us.  Although I don't think we really factor into his thinking aside from having to open the door for him.  So there we are, enjoying our coffee and I see a vulture circling on air currents and thermals.

That's when I start thinking about Pilotwings.  Until I had been playing Pilotwings Resort for the 3DS extensively, I felt like I could never get the hang of hang gliding (pun not intended or noticed until after I wrote that) regardless of the Pilotwings game.  In Pilotwings 64 I could never figure out the right balance of gliding between thermals, circling and watching the beautiful scenery.

So there I am, looking up at this circling vulture and after it circles a few times, it flies a different direction (aren't all directions different after a circle?) then rises while circling as it comes in contact with another thermal.  How do they know where the thermals are?  I get that it's some bird intuition-sense-it-through-their-feathers/brains/esp-something-or-other-that-I-don't-fully-understand, but it's still kind of amazing when I think about it.

That's probably one of the reasons why I will never go hang gliding.  If I were to be convinced to go, even on a tandem glide, which I'm pretty sure is required if you've never been before (like sky diving), I would be pseudo-panicking because I wouldn't be able to see where the thermals are and we would end up just circling our way back down to the ground.  Like, how do you know where they are in the real world if they don't look like this:

That's my fear anyway, maybe along with hang gliding old women dressed as clowns carrying sharpened rusty knives in their teeth.  But that's something else entirely.

You also cannot tell, but I had just taken an hour long break to put together an Ikea bookshelf.  I went looking for my collection of 3DS games [I wanted to take an in-game picture of a thermal in Pilotwings Resort, because that's one of the few 3DS games where you can take in-game pics) in a pile that was birthed after cleaning up the apartment, was unable to locate it and thought, "If all our video game stuff was centralized, it would be easy to find stuff" and "I should clean up that corner where our video game stuff is stacked/piled."  So when I first started, Conklederp asked if she could help and this popped into my head:

I didn't want this to happen, but I ended up needing Conklederp's help so she did, and it only took, at most, an hour, probably not even that long.  I've got carpentry and cabinet making running through my blood on both sides of my family, so I know how to build shit.

So I did all that and then I have now come back to finish.  Again, birds can fly and that makes them pretty awesome.  Ducks can swim and fly, which makes them awesomer.  Dippers, are just too fucking much and are probably in the process of taking over the world.  What's that, you haven't heard of Dippers?  That's part of their plot too and so far, it's worked.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Smoke & Mirrors

Follow up: Sword and Sworcery EP

I recently completed this game, and decided to do a follow-up to my First Impressions.  I felt that the ending of this game was strongly affecting in a way that warranted further attention here.  

Sword and Sworcery EP is weird.  Weird and unique; truly this game is very much itself.  It doesn't really resemble anything else in my library or memory. Weird and beautiful: the sounds and graphics are finely crafted, original creations, custom to this game.  There's something so great about the impact of the sword swings during combat.  The sound has a real punch to it.

The themes are strange and perplexing.  The willingness to mix fantasy with random bits of modern imagery make it really hard to pin down.  However, playing through, from start to finish, this game has a sense of coherence.  This is actually aided somewhat by the habit of breaking of the fourth wall.  The characters speak directly to the player, and even the Scythian, the character controlled by the player, uses the royal 'we' whenever speaking.  It seemed clear to me that the Scythian did this to acknowledge the dual nature of the player and herself. The other characters will refer to the Scythian, but speak directly to you.  It feels as though they live in this game and acknowledge that there is a player outside the game.  

There is a theme of the inevitability of death, which is mentioned directly within the dialogue, and also through animated behavior.  This theme coupled with the breaking of the fourth wall, drew my attention to the fact that I was in no danger, however, I was taking part in putting the Scythian in danger.  And while the game never blamed me for it (as the player), I shared in a sense of dread and inevitability, as the Scythian carried out her 'woeful errand' with my assistance.  But more than that, I had an awareness that I was 'sharing' these feelings with the characters, who are merely pieces of fiction after all. 

As the game drew to a close, I felt my own connection to the characters drifting away.  I was left with a feeling of watching fish in a glass bowl.  The events of the story ultimately have a greater impact on the characters within, and I have  only second-hand involvement.  I will go on with my life, go to work, the grocery store, play another game.  But these events will have lasting effects on the characters within.  

I guess, in a sense, immersion is never really broken, but more put in its place.  The player is outside, and must remain there. We can only watch, and have a small influence on what happens within.  Which makes for a weird and beautiful experience.

So yeah, rad game.  I highly recommend it. Click the >Read More> link below for more info.

Sim City IV and emerging storylines

The above video is an hour-long lecture by Jonathan Blow.  I think he's the guy that wrote Braid.  Yup, the guy who wrote Braid.  Braid is an award winning indie game, a puzzle platformer.  Braid effectively weaves, or "braids" if you will, great graphics/sound, game play and story.  Recommended for everybody.  If you have the time, go ahead and listen to that lecture.  Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't.    I enjoyed it.  I like seeing all this college-level theory stuff as applied to games.

In the lecture, he talks about the concept of an emerging storyline in games.  The idea is that there isn't a written storyline, or what storyline there is is minimal, and the story comes out through play of the game.  I think this is a pretty cool idea.  And I think I 'get it.' I think that my previous experience playing MineCraft had an emerging storyline.  Today I want to talk about Sim City IV, a game I've been playing lately, and another example of an emerging storyline.


I should let you know that Sim City is a city simulator.  If that wasn't yet clear from the title.  In Sim City, you play the role of an all-powerful 'mayor,' with complete control over the cities budget, zoning choices, and even the ability to cause natural disasters.  (But let's leave that last one alone for now.)  The gist of the game is: If you build it, they will come.  People will populate your city as long as you provide the basic needs of modern industrial society:  residential, commercial, industrial zones and infrastructure such as roads, power and running water. After setting up shop in your city, the residents will immediately begin approving or disapproving of your job as mayor, and this is the driving force behind my own emerging storyline.

I play this game with the overarching goal of winning approval of the residents.  I have sub-goals of increasing population, of using clean energy and public transportation.  I've got the first goal down, but the following goals are proving to be a lot trickier.  Twenty four hours and five cities deep, My story has gone from the need for approval, to a near-obsessive desire to build an ideal city according to my own design.

I realized that emergent storylines make games like Sim City IV more like a toy than a game, as my esteemed colleague Conklederp put it in her post about the Sims series of games.  Playing Sim City is not unlike playing with Legos or blocks, with the specific theme of city building and a near infinite number of resources.  Watch the video below for an example of an emergent storyline using more traditional toys:

I don't imagine that the Gene Simmons doll featured in the above video was originally intended to be used to crush matchbox cars. But through the emerging storyline, Al was able to find a new role for Gene to play.  

The key difference between toys and video games is that, with video games, there is a computer program providing feedback.  This is a role that used to be occupied by the imagination of the individual player, or the cooperating imaginations of a group of players.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this.  What is it about computer controlled feedback that is so alluring?

Perhaps it is easier and more relaxing to allow a computer to run the simulator, rather than using my imagination to fill in all the gaps?  I certainly know I'm tired most days after work, and if I were to engage in imaginative play as Al did above, all my toys might just talk about how tired they are.  

There is also, for me, a challenge in figuring out the dynamics of the computer feedback.  Similar to figuring out an opponent in a multi-player game, I am trying to learn how to balance the programmed needs of my Sim-citizens, with my own, changing concept of my perfect city.  And I must admit, while I sometimes want to invite Gene Simmons to come visit my failures, I don't have the heart to destroy them.  Fortunately for me, the cities remain in stasis when I'm not playing them.  It would certainly add another dimension of challenge if they did not.

Sim City IV was released in 2003, and there has been a long drought of Sim City titles since.  However, there are plans to release another in the series, simply titled Sim City. This game is slated for March of this year, 2013.  There is talk of online, co-operative play and for these features, I am excited.  

I would love a chance to build neighboring cities with a friend, and perhaps work together to help one another with our particular mayoral shortcomings.  Sim City IV has the ability to cooperate with neighboring towns, but it is only a one player game, so I am only able to cooperate with myself.  I'm pretty good at playing with myself... ... ... but the possibilities of emerging storylines increase greatly when more than one mind is at play.

Sim City is a game which is a great abstraction.  The player views the action from above, removed from the concerns of the individuals in the town, which can number in the thousands.  This makes it a good candidate to talk about emerging storylines and also a bad one, because the abstraction may interfere with the players ability to relate.  

However, it is a game that has its hooks in me now.  I will continue to meditate on the subject of emergent gameplay, and I will try to see if I can find it in other games as I play them.  

Weird Post at a Weird Hour

It's weird.  This blog, I mean.  But "weird" in the best sense of the word.  And on a quick side note, I can remember the instance when I learned how to spell the word "weird."  I was making a drawing that contained the planet Mars and I was painting it green (because we all know Martians are green), and I wanted to write "weird" next to the planet, although I don't remember why.  I was then told by my teacher that the planet Mars is really red and that weird wasn't spelled "W-I-E-R-D."

I mean it's weird in that it's taken on this entity form that I've told myself, needs to be fed every Monday and Friday.  There've been times when I've been late with my feedings, but this is a purely self imposed feeding schedule.  There's no one behind the curtain pulling strings or threatening to fail me in life if I don't write up a post on time.  This is the real world.

Yet, all the same, every Sunday and Thursday or Monday and Friday, I'll think, "Hey, I need to put up a post!"  Please don't miss-understand me, I don't feel like this blog has become a chore or something that I have to do.  I love doing it.  I love checking the stats and seeing who and how many people (or bots) have checked out something that either Dave or I have written.  It's a bit of a rush when I see that a person/bot from South Korea or Ireland has found our little corner or the internet; or that someone googled "Amnesia Logo" or "Nintendo Power Cover" and found us.

But the other day at work, I picked up a copy of the Oregonian and began reading an article about the recent happenings in Newtown, CT.  By the second paragraph, the writer was suggesting that violet video games were one of many catalysts for the recent wave of shootings.  I was enraged that this suggestion so easily came up.  While at work today, I decided that I was not going to write an article about how this made me feel followed by me being annoyed.  This isn't the time for that.

With that self declaration, I couldn't think of what to post about for Monday's article.  My video game playing has been pretty one sided recently.  That one side being The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a bit of The World Ends With You.  I also logged onto Penny-Arcade because I know they post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and realized that I hadn't read anything from them in over a week.  I also have six and-a-half Rooster Teeth podcasts that I haven't listened to yet.  Also, I have a couple of friends, along with Conklederp, who've shown some legit interest in D&D, not just DD&D (Drunk Dungeons & Dragons), but I don't want to reveal anything there yet either, although I probably just did.

So the weird thing is, is that I don't have a legit gaming topic to cover today/tonight except to talk about how I don't have a topic, which I just did, so I decided to take the time to write about it, and assuming that you've made it this far, thank you for reading along with what Dr. Potts and I have to say.  And yes, I'm going to post this without proofing it (which I will normally do), because Jargaritas are awesome.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconain

A Fresh Aire Christmas: Best_Christmas_Album_Ever!

Impressions from Cooperative Gaming Coop #3: Zineistar curated by Anna Anthropy

This is definitely the more Avant Garde cabinet.  These games are not all traditionally challenging or fun.  But many are provoking, of thoughts and of feelings.  Original, clever.  This will mark a trend that will continue for the remaining two posts I have planned for this event - which is that I didn't play all the games in these cabinets.  I will try to be more complete next time.  

Zineistar curated by Anna Anthropy

• Lim by Merritt Kopas

didn't play, but here's: a review.  Oh, and hey look, a play-link!  Alright, now I've played it.  Very interesting.  It plays in-browser.  Give it a look, see how you feel.  

• Sister’s Little Helper by Pierre Corbinais

didn't play.  I hear that you roll joints for the lead character and she tells you stories.  There are supposed to be a bunch of different stories. You can download it from this funny french page.

• Personal Trip to the Moon by VoEC

This game was interesting.  It's a terrible pun to call this game 'atmospheric' - but it really is.  The music was a very strong part of the atmosphere.  This game seems designed to provoke an emotional reaction, and 'fun' is not the target emotional response.  It is well put together, polished and short.  Go play it, it'll only take five minutes.

• Putt-Putt Saves the Stew by Jeremy and Eric Penner

All the art and sounds for this game were created by a small child.  The programming was done by his father.  The results are adorably funny, if a little tough to discern.  In particular, I really appreciate how Putt-Putt is so eager to help.  I highly recommend giving this game a play-through.

• Coletânea Esses Games Violentos "These Violent Video Games" by 'fifty 11 year-olds'
  
  

11/17/2012:  edit:  I forgot to include this game!  This game was put together with contributions by fifty children, all of whom are listed on the Gaming Co-Op's Arcade Page. This game was ridiculously hard, but worth a look, at the very least to honor the effort of a bunch of kids making a video game.  And I know that's something I want to do, don't you?

• A Game for Strong DAPHNY DRUCILLA “DOUBLE [DILDOS] DRAGON” DELIGHT DAVID

(I tried, but I simply could not find a picture for this game.  I suggest you click the link above and play the game.  Then, if you're feeling brave, do an image search for the above title and see what you find)
This game wasn't exactly a game, per-se.  It was more like a power-point presentation where the player gets to hold the clicker.  I don't mean for that to denigrate this game, though.  It is very expressive, and the subject is the struggles of trying to make a game, for a particular character named 'strong.'  

• SuperEagle by TheCatamites and J Chastain

I didn't play this one.  Apparantly you shoot lots and lots of Nazis and all the graphics are hand-drawn.  And also, if you don't do it effectively, you will get downgraded to a desk job.  

• Live Forever! by Hubol Gordon

This game was super-bizarre.  Downright ridiculous even.  Worth playing.  The gist is that your character - a sort of vaguely anthropomorphic blob-creature, wants to live forever, so it has to collect certain items that give you youth and avoid items that age you.  Youth items are like food and candy and plastic surgery.  Aging items are birthday cakes.  You can also pick up drugs, which make the graphics go all wacked out.  This game was like a piece of modernist, dadaist, something-ist art.  Definitely provoked a reaction from me.  Bewilderment.  And some laughs too =)  Try it! 




Zinestar was an unusual cabinet.  I think some of the most experimental gaming experiences were had on this one.  I'd like to go back and play them all, so I can give a more comparative review.
Zinestar is the first cabinet I'm reviewing where I didn't play all of the games.  The next post will actually be a summary of miscellaneous games I did play.  And the last will be for the Winnitron, which I am excited to talk about.  



-DRPOTTS

When not playing the preceding games, currently playing:
Angry Birds
Trilby's Notes
Plants vs Zombies
Wandering Hamster