Reality Panic

Dang, spending ten days in Japan takes twenty to recover… That is, I meant to post this BioShock postmortem video a while ago…

Inspired by prolific video taking action in the San Diego and New York IGDA chapters, the Montreal chapter got its act together and recorded Chris Kline’s insightful recounting of BioShock’s gestation back at the September 11th chapter meeting. In short, I was utterly amazed at how clueless/directionless the game was from the start and how long it took for all the various aspects to materialize, and then come to together as a cohesive whole.

If you don’t want to watch the full 60-minute lecture + 20-minute Q&A, the Montreal chapter also whipped up a summary report (along with Chris’ PPT file).

Related, Clint Hocking has written up an in depth critique of BioShock, looking at how the game ultimately fails to fully marry ludic and narrative elements.

Moral dilemma #1 is, Do I skip work to play more BioShock ;)

I picked up a copy of the extremely well-received BioShock on Tuesday. Sadly, I’ve not had much time to play and have only cleared the second section/level (ie, Medical Pavilion). (Quick aside: Wow, did that sneaky “dentist” splicer make me jump off the sofa!) Many are touting it as the top contender for game of the year and discussing how it elevates the art form of games.

Part of that praise comes from the serious social commentary weaved within the story, and also how the Little Sisters present a moral choice to the player. That’s all fine and good, but most gamers (?) probably look to any such choice as purely a game system to be optimized: harvest option = 160 Adams, which means I can upgrade more plasmids, etc; rescue option = 80 Adams, but I get a gift of 200 Adams from Tannenbaum for every three sisters I save, plus extra tonics (oh, and there’s a 100 gamerscore Achievement if I rescue them all) - and so on.

So, while I can certainly appreciate (and enjoy) the dilemma from a story point of view (and my understanding is that there are different ends depending on which path you choose), very quickly it moves to a games-systems-optimization equation, if even subconsciously.

Anyway, was just a random thought. Hmm, I’m sure some smarter folks have written on this topic. Maybe Raph covered it in Theory of Fun? Also, seems like Ken Levine is saying lots of interesting stuff over at Shacknews, but I haven’t had the chance to read it yet…

I have a guilty pleasure to admit to: I’m a Soul Calibur nut! Playing countless hours of the original Dreamcast version with friends late into the night made for some of my best game playing experiences ever… Anyway, I can only hope that the next rev of the game has more to offer than advanced boob physics…

Coincidentally, around the same time I was reading up on Ivy’s makeover, Next Generation published their “Europe’s 50 Big Bosses” list. Is it any surprise that only two women are listed: Jane Cavanagh, the CEO of Eidos, and Fiona Sperry, the GM of EA UK.

Connecting more dots, Wagner James Au’s recent polemic touches on this in regards to the mainstream game industry being run by “lost boy” gamer dudes, creating games for other gamer dudes and being written about by more gamer dudes. Rinse repeat. Would be interesting to know to what extent a more diverse/inclusive workforce is involved in all the other sectors, margins, examples that Au mentions…

As an aside, I cannot emphasize enough how excellent/relevant Clayton Christensen’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, is to all of this. It provides an excellent framework and understanding of disruptive technology. A must read.

A few months back, Clint Hocking did a “rehearsal” of his GDC exploration lecture at IGDA Montreal. Since I had just started playing Crackdown, his one point of “providing many small/dispersed rewards, encourages exploration” really stuck in my mind.

Those dang agility/hidden orbs scattered across the map motivated me to explore the richness and depth of Pacific City, way beyond what I would have done in a normal, more linear, game.

Mind you, the fact that they were linked to Xbox achievements was certainly part of the motivation as well. And, more generally, the idea of all those achievements serving as small rewards to more thoroughly explore the game overall is an interesting one. That is, minus the achievements, would most folks simply clear the 21 gang leaders and be done?

Raphael van Lierop has a lengthy discussion on achievements running in the IGDA’s forums…

A self-confessed digital/pixel art junky, I’ve been a big fan of the AIAS’ “Into the Pixel” game art exhibit since year one.

They will be accepting entries up until May 4th. Hopefully, there will be more stuff by Daniel Dociu, who’s had some of the most stunning pieces in the exhibit so far… IMHO

Interesting to see the reference at GamePolitics… While game art is certainly art and contributes heavily to the validation of games as art, it doesn’t quite get at the are games art debate (like this and that, for example)… That is, the art of the games is not the art of games.

I still remember Clint Hocking telling me about his X360’s blog when he first got his system last year. So, when the recent Escapist article on 360voice came around, it reminded/inspired me to get my own system’s blog set up.

Since it is new, it’s not saying much interesting. Yet… This one from another box made me laugh:

DCitron6 was absent yesterday… I was smelling something that reminded me of sweat… He better not be playing with a Nintendo Wii… burning calories while playing games is just wrong.