Reality Panic

Ah, if only we didn’t need to sleep (or sleep as much)! No doubt, I’ll be the first in line for some of these Provigil stay-awake pills. Imagine not sleeping for a week? Oh man, I’d so catch up on all my game playing, reading, work, family life, etc, etc.

My guess is that game developers (or rather studio managers) will be right there in line with me. I am sure the cost savings on under-desk mattresses will outweigh the expense of the pills…

Ironically, just when it seems that crunch mode may enter a new era of optimized “voluntary overtime”, we’ve got the UK goverment further enforcing strict working hours. Imagine not being contractually ALLOWED to work more than 48 hours a week?

Hmm, pop a pill and that’s like 120 hours for playing games :)

I’ve been down in San Francisco all week for various meetings (hence the lack of blog updates). And, I must say that I am embarrassed to be heading back home to Montreal after reading about recent actions to censor game content in Quebec.

Sony removed a level of its soon to be released game, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain after receiving criticism over Quebec based terrorists invading Toronto. Despite the concerns presented, I think it was a really cool idea and played up interesting historical references (if extremely exaggerated).

It really strikes me as a bizarre form of censorship. Clearly, this is all meant to be fictional, etc. I mean, this kind of stuff happens all the time in other media. Further, if everyone freaks out whenever there’s a remote reference to “their people”, what’s left? Does this mean that every game will have to use nondescript white Americans as the universal good guys and bad guys and every other guy? Well, that is until Joe average starts complaining…

This quote from the article is just unbelievable:

“It’s a sensitive subject, so of course we’re disturbed by that but we’re not disturbed when we’re playing a game where the bad guy is a Japanese guy,” he said in an interview. “We shoot him and that’s OK.”

WTF?!

Ironically enough, the huge hit Splinter Cell was developed in Montreal by Ubisoft and involves an elaborate plan by Chinese rogue officials to over-through their government. Hmm…

Despite many pointing to Japanese games/developers as the golden standard, things are a mess over there. Not the least of their problems, but the closed culture of Japanese game developers is an ongoing issue…

And so, it was great to see all of the attention given to Kiyoshi Shin and the IGDA’s Tokyo chapter in Justin Hall’s Tokyo Game Show report up at Gamasutra. I’ve personally raved about the chapter’s work and progress in bringing the Japanese development community together, but nice to see it covered somewhere so prominent like Gama. Ditto for the previous coverage of a chapter organized developer seminar up at GameSpot.

<igda_plug_mode>The emphasis that the IGDA puts on “building community” is so important and makes a difference in many small ways. If you have not attended a local chapter meeting, I encourage you to do so. Many think they’ve got better things to do with their time, but taking a few moments out of a month to connect with peers is of fundamental importance - even if you don’t realize that it is.</igda_plug_mode>

Anyway, just encouraging to see that our ongoing focus to build community is getting noticed and in some small way is playing a role in the resurgence of Japanese development.

(As a side note, the Tokyo chapter is looking for some volunteers to help with a translation project on interviews with star developers like Miyamoto.)

This weekend, my wife and I left the kid at the in-laws and headed out to the mountains for some R&R. Ah, the beauty of the autumn leaves (and check out the depth-cued interpolated fog)…

As part of our weekend of rest and relaxation, we decided to take a 2.5hr/7km hike down Mount Tremblant (hmm, need to recheck definition of R&R). And, despite the burn in my calves, it felt eerily like playing a video game (of the platform/rpg hybrid genre, to be specific).

We had to purchase supplies (ie, water, snacks, etc) and optimally pack our inventory; We had to locate a map and get info on available routes; Once at the summit, there was a hunt for suitable “weapons” (notice my Staff of Mighty Walking +3).

On the way down the hill, we had to navigate through various stepping stones, branches and other precarious platforms (or slip to our untimely demise). Further, we’d take turns leading and then point out optimal paths over the platforms to each other…

True to rpg form, there was a cast of unlikely NPCs: Like the heartbroken dude walking up and playing his guitar simultaneously; The Japanese businessman tourist in full business attire (ie, shirt+jacket+tie+shoes) standing half-way up the mountain snapping photos; The crazy hobbit guy walking up barefoot!; The wench in high-heels standing by the waterfall; The moose by the lake; etc, etc. (note, I am not joking)

Sadly, no end-level boss to fight or spiffy cutscene - just a nice dip in the heated pool :)

Could there be stranger bedfellows than oldschool Chris Crawford and firebrand Seamus Blackley? While Seamus has been firing off about the game industry’s lack of economic and cultural significance (mainly in comparison to movies), Chris has been conducting his own demographic research. He suggests that recent sales figures and stats are mainly smoke and mirrors (despite additional hype by Fortune magazine).

So, what’s Chris’ solution: Make better games!

Seems so simple. As a counterpoint, GameSpot editor Greg Kasavin proudly states that we’re progressing at a nice clip and in some ways need to rethink what we view as innovation.

It is nice to see Matteo Bittanti getting some attention in the press (plus some thread time at Slashdot). He jazzed the participants of last month’s Academic Day with his manifesto for improved game criticism.

On the whole, I agree very much with his point and think that the writing and analysis of games needs to improve dramatically. When will the game industry have its own Rolling Stone (ie, when it was “important” during the 70s)? And, will anyone really be interested?

I suppose that if games were more intential in terms of their social commentary, there might be more to talk about - in a critical sense, that is ;)

Certainly, Nintendo’s pushing their implied impact on culture with their latest ads… And, GeorgiaTech’s Game Morphology project is a nice stab at “creating a critical vocabulary that will help expand the expressive power of the medium”… Nice to see people looking into things at this level.

Admittedly, I am very excited that Matteo accepted my invite to speak at GDC in March!