GDC
I don't typically enjoy being on the receiving end of April Fools Day jokes (or as I like to call it "Liar Day"), but there's something about the elaborate nature of this one that makes it worth believing in just for a brief second.
You may recall that last week during GDC, Hideo Kojima (the Big Boss of the Metal Gear series) spoke at a very large keynote that had an interesting twist at the end hinting that a "The Next MGS" would star Raiden. This small detail didn't go unnoticed by many of the people present, but raised all sorts of questions. It appears that we have some of those answers today and... well... maybe it's best that I don't ruin the surprise and let you discover the truth for yourself here.
Well played Kojima. I totally fell for it. Now stop playing with games with my heart and make a sequel to Snatcher.
Here's a subject that I've hashed and rehashed in my own life hundreds of time: it's tough as hell to "translate" the importance of gaming to non-gamers, and sometimes the details of the games themselves paint the medium as embarrassingly childish. It's tough for a grown gay man to explain to a room of lawyers and businessfolk why he finds merit in Bikini Zombie Slayers.
Fruit Brute and I often talk about this, and about why gaming remains mired in a mental ghetto that much of the rest of the world views as silly and infantile. So we were both pleased to hear that journalist Heather Chaplin related that frustration to a crowd of game devs at GDC:
[Chaplin] reports at NPR among other venues. She says this puts her in the role of a "translator," trying to tell the mainstream why gaming even matters. This also means explaining a lot of big-name games that feature zombies, and aliens, and girls in metal bikinis wielding axes. And while she's heard the excuses - it's "a very new medium" - she's way past accepting them.
Like Wendy slapping around the lost boys, Chaplin patiently but firmly laid down the line. "It is you guys as game designers who are mired deeply in 'guy culture,'" Chaplin said. The problem isn't the medium: "You are a bunch of stunted adolescents." Games avoid any of the things that separate men from boys: responsibility, introspection, intimacy, and intellectual discovery. And "when you're talking about culture-makers, this is a problem."
It is a problem if you're interested in expanding how the non-gaming world views gaming. While Cliffy B's Gears of War "power fantasy" makes for fantastic gaming, it doesn't exactly make for an exemplary ambassador to the rest of the universe. (Should it?)
Stephen Totilo had more to say at MTV Multiplayer:
She knows the big players and has hung out with top designers like Cliff Bleszinski and Will Wright. She singled Bleszinski out in her talk, saying she liked him, but that she was distressed by how juvenile most major games are. She dismissed top games as "power fantasies..."
She said game developers need to stop using the youth of the gaming medium as an excuse. At the same age of their medium, Chaplin said, movies had had Fritz Lang and were on the verge of Citizen Kane. Rock n roll had Bob Dylan and the Beatles...
I might point to BioShock and Rock Band as evidence of Fritz Lang and Dylan-esque qualities in gaming, but even if I were successful in that argument, the vast majority of top games don't rely on cultural commentary or the maturity of artistic expression to sell themselves. They rely on muscle and guns and boobies: the bigger the better.
Journalist to Game Biz: Grow Up [GamePolitics]
GDC came and went last week, but that hasn't kept me from chewing all this weekend upon the fatty morsels that they gave me at the conference. Two of my favorite sessions that I went to (other than the LGBT Round Tables) were the Microtalks session and the Game Reviewer's Rant session. Both sessions allowed for multiple speakers to give five minutes worth of info that they found appropriate for the conference. Having attended both of the sessions, I noticed that two separate speakers gave talks greatly denouncing the 100-point system often used to review games, and used exclusively by Metacritic to average an aggregate of reviews for games.
The two speakers that spoke on the issue are none other than our GayGamer GDC pal, Adam Sessler and one of the Creative Directors at Ubisoft, Clint Hocking. Both speakers lay into the system pretty hard, and even offer some alternatives as to what can be done to help fight the problem.
So hit the jump to see what each had to say.
At the Experimental Gameplay Sessions for GDC 2009, thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen revealed a few edits they made to last month's PSN masterpiece Flower that, if left in, might have made the game a whole lot more like, well, every other game. According to MTV's Multiplayer, they chopped out:
- Timers, which they thought might help motivate the player
- Desert terrain, which would cost any players who flew over it some petals
- Spells, which were part of a system that allowed the player to gain improved flight abilities
- Orbs, into which players were going to deposit petals in order to unlock checkpoints
Chen revealed that play testers were swearing and cursing the challenges, which sort of ran counter to the experience that the game's makers wanted to provide. In my opinion, those were some good calls. I can't really imagine playing the game with any of those additions and retaining the same experience. I mean, sure, sometimes you want to keep score or cast thunderbolt, but sometimes you just want to blow around forever.
Things the 'Flower' Team Ditched [Multiplayer]
Even though it only got announced just a short time ago, the release date for ExciteBots: Trick Racing is fast approaching. In fact, it's so close that Nintendo had a "very near complete" demo to show off at their GDC booth. As the bizarre-sequel to the cult hit launch title ExciteTruck, you'll find the primary mechanics of Truck inside of this follow up, such as giant ramps erupting out of the ground and smooth motion controlled steering, but the added features seen here are anything but your average racer sequel material.
The most noticeable transformation is that the title replaces conventional vehicles with a line up anthropomorphic, shape-shifting robots. The roster includes bats, turtles, grasshoppers, mice, frogs and an assortment of other creatures. Once the race has started, players will encounter a wide range of "activities" that can occur mid race. These microgames were evenly paced through the demo levels that I was able to play and keep the second and third lap of each race fresh. The examples that I was able to find had the bots barreling through a frame of bowling pins, using a giant hammer to crush opponents, and even using a tambourine. Most of the microgames could be played with the A button, a few of them used the Wii remote's motion sensitivity. I found the use of motion here to be a mixed bag. Some were as simple as pushing the remote forward while others required strange circling moves that momentary broke the pacing of the race.
ExciteBots's visuals exceed the level of detail seen in Truck with plenty of set dressings to sell each of the game's exotic locales, even if it comes off a little exaggerated. While it may not compare well with the graphics seen on HD console racers, the tracks that I saw were some of the lushest environments that I've seen on Nintendo console. The Nintendo rep on-hand was quick to mention that the game will feature local 1-on-1 multiplayer, but wasn't sure if there were any 4 player options. Thankfully, players will be able to enjoy online races with six players [insert snarky gripe about Nintendo friend codes here]. While ExciteTruck was a fun new approach to arcade racers, it seems as though Bots is more than ready to go the extra mile to push the boundaries of bizarre racing even further. The game becomes available in on April 20th in North America, with Euro and Japanese releases soon after.
One of my favorite parts of GDC is the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bi and Transgender) Round Tables that take place, run in part by Jab Havens, which you may remember as the winner of LoGo's Upcoming Gay Gaming Industry Professional Award. Well each year, Jeb, as part of IGDA, puts on a few sessions in which members of the LGBT community can get together and talk about issues in the game industry that they feel are affecting them and/or the community. This year there were three sessions in total, with each having a variety of people showing up to discuss the state of games and the diversity of people that work with them.
We had a variety of companies and organizations represented at the round tables, including people from Zynga, n-Space, Gaymer Revolution, Cryptic Studios, Maxis, and DigiPen. Job roles ranged from students just starting at college all the way to longtime industry veterans, along with plenty of artists, producers, programmers, and public relations personnel in the mix as well.
One of the major recurring issues that we discussed was the level of discrimination that can exist in the normal workplace environment. As is well known in the gaming community at large, oftentimes it there is a "Boy's Club" puesdo-macho mentality that exists in the gaming industry which is part of the reason many girls find it difficult to break into the gaming industry; moreover, this mentality also leaks over into the LGBT territory too as terms like 'gay' and 'fag' crop up as substitutes for 'lame' or 'stupid'. We discussed using humor and tact when dealing with these issues in a casual work environment, and that if prejudice ever gets too out of hand, Human Resources is there to help lend a hand. Others pointed out that being a friend and not isolating yourself from coworkers also allows people to become more comfortable and acclimated to the idea that negative gay stereotypes shouldn't be believed or propagated.
One particular issue that was brought up that involves GayGamer, is that there is a lack of information out on the internet as to which game industry companies have non-discrimination policies on the books, and which ones actually try to foster a positive work environment for their LGBT workers. There was discussion of possibly collecting this info and rating companies in a wiki or other venue (possibly done by GayGamer) that current and future employees could use to help see what companies are doing to attract a diverse workforce. At the same time it would actively encourage said companies to put these types of policies into place. I think it sounds like a great idea, so stay tuned to GayGamer for more info on the subject and feel free to post your own two cents on the idea in the comments.
Overall, the roundtables really allowed the attendees to both share and learn from each others experiences and let everyone speak their minds on just how well the game industry is doing at retaining and encouraging their LGBT workforce, and while we all could agree that there is plenty of room for improvement in the industry, the round tables also provided that pat on the back that helps you know that you're not the only one at the conference who isn't "straight". Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your A\S\L. . .
One of the main draws for the media and attendees at GDC is the Expo that they have laid out in which all the eager game exhibitors try to showcase their upcoming or recently released products in order to generate more buzz. Gameboy and I decided to take some of our free time yesterday afternoon to check out the new Punch-Out!! Wii game that will soon be hitting shelves; however, while patiently waiting for our turn at some hands-on time with the game, I noticed the hair clip pictured to the right in front of me and was quietly amused. Upon noticing the hair clip I turned to try and see what the other presenters at the booth were wearing and quickly realized just how fashionable Team Nintendo was dressed. Being the gay geek that I am, I quickly asked for a picture of both the male and female garb that the attendants were wearing, which you can see below.
The picture does not give the outfits full justice, but believe you me they all looked stunning. All the male presenters were wearing long-sleeve, black, v-neck sweaters that had a small red plumbers instead of Polo symbols on their chest. The male model in the photo is also sporting one of the pristine white DS ball caps that "I'm casual, hip, and geeky". The feminine get-ups were even more spectacular. They had the Nintendo DS hair clips mentioned before, paired with a lovely black, collared, three-quarter sleeve dress, all topped off with matching black boots. I'm actually quite sad that the lovely furred boots that the pictured presenter had on didn't make it into the shot, but believe me, they were fierce.
We visited a few more booths at the Expo, but I have to give laud and praise to the folks at Nintendo for not only making fantastic garb and accessories to advertise their products, but also showing that presenters can look classy and sophisticated, instead of just being eye candy to bring in gamers to their booth (AKA 'booth babes'). For this Nintendo receives this year's newly created (and named) GayGamer GDC Fashion Forward Award. May they always keep it hot and super (thanks for asking) fabulous.
After getting a passing look at Nintendo's Punch-Out! for Wii at their GDC expo booth I knew that I had to take some time and come back to get my hands on the demo. Up till now we've only seen a couple of promising trailers, but attendees of GDC can play through a short circuit of fighters to get a feel for the game. The demo includes three classic fighters, Glass Joe, Von Kaiser, and King Hippo, as well as a brand new character, Disco Kid. The thing that immediately struck me is how faithful the 3D visuals are to the 8 and 16-bit source material.
The controls are simple and responsive. Using a control scheme very similar to Super Punch-Out!, the Wii update sprinkles in some motion controls in a few (but prominent) spots that make sense. Obviously we're going to be engaging in fisticuffs with the Wii remote and nunchuk's motion, but you will also see motion come into play when Little Mac has knocked down an opponent. By shaking the controllers as the very "not Mario" referee is counting, players are able to gain a little bit of their health back. Shaking is also used when Little Mac is reaching for the ropes himself. Dodging is thankfully handled by the analogue stick, allowing players make some carefully executed evasive maneuvers.
The overall gameplay experience feels very similar to the classic originals. Beating an opponent into a bruised pulp through brute force isn't going to work very long, and just about all of Little Mac's foes will require a little bit of pattern recognition in order to achieve a knock out. The process may require some trial and error, but the demo was forgiving enough not to make this an issue. The Wii update doesn't reinvent the wheel, but is a very apt use of Nintendo's back catalog. It may not revolutionize the series' core game design in the way that Metroid Prime or Mario 64 did, but the demo proved that sometimes Wii developers don't have to start from scratch when bringing a series back to life.
Punch-Out! will be released in late May this year in North America.
During a session "All About Noby Noby Boy," the creative mastermind behind Katamari Damacy, Keita Takahashi, gave the audience at the Game Developers Conference a special look at a very special update coming to the oddball PSN title. This update hasn't been given a date yet, but promises to include offline multiplayer for up to four players. While one might assume that would mean that four Noby Noby Boys would be on the screen at once, but Takahashi felt that it might be more fun to have players work in pairs. With one player as the head and the other as "the caboose" if you will, the tag teaming showed off during the session had a few lucky audience members stretching all over the place. For those interested, there's no evidence that one end of a Noby Noby Boy can eat another Noby Noby Boy.
In another Noby Noby-related announcement, Takahashi gave us just a few seconds to look at an iPhone version of the game. Played from a top-down perspective, players can stretch, flick, tilt Noby Noby boy amid a playground of random objects. The Noby Noby Boy's iPhone stretching will be combined with the PS3 title, allowing Noby Noby Girl to expand even further across the galaxy! While no time table for release was mentioned, Takahashi stated that he wishes for the game to be free of charge as special thanks to all of his fans for their support.
Apologies for the blurry picture. Takahashi didn't let people see too much of the iPhone version.
Hooray - the Ratchet & Clank Future trilogy that begun with Tools of Destruction and continued in Quest for Booty will be completed with the just-announced third entry in the series, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.
Sony and Insomniac Games introduced the game today after holding a Ratchet & Clank Future Weapons Contest last week. We'll have more info on the game as it's revealed, including which player-designed weapon will be included in the game!
You can also tune into GTTV this week to see the world premiere of the teaser trailer.
Hideo Kojima's keynote at GDC this morning was filled to the brim with information on the designer's Metal Gear series, from the inception of the first MSX title to the "last" entry in the series for Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid 4. In a surprising twist at the end of the keynote possibly gave developers a little bit of an idea of where the series may be headed next.
Throughout Kojima's session, he likened developers taking on difficult projects to Solid Snake attempting climbing over seemingly "impossible" walls through an adorable set of animations and slides. His message primarily focused on making the impossible game design goals possible by leveraging hardware technologies correctly and to developing software technology to support game design. Add all of that together and developers should be able to get over that metaphorical wall. Upon reviewing the series' entire body of work and looking back at all the walls it/Snake had to climb Kojima stated that...
Simply put, Metal Gear was born out of hardware limitations, advancing together with hardware to reach new heights.
A subtle twist occurred as the view panned up to reveal the next wall for Kojima to scale: "The Next MGS." While I don't think too many people were expecting MGS4 to really be the last title in the series, the audience got a little surprise when they didn't find Solid Snake standing on top of the wall, but Raiden!
What does this mean? While Kojima was very specific in stating that the idea of the next Metal Gear entry is something that is possible (read: not officially announced), it does appear Solid Snake may not be the focus if it were to happen. With MGS4 not even a year old, it's not likely that will see any sequel news solidify soon (no pun intended).
Where do I start with this clip? On one hand I'm completely thrilled to see Little Mac back in the ring, but on the other hand I'm not so sure I want to give beat the crap out of the Disco Kid. I'm not entirely certain that he's a negative stereotype, but the Kid's flair for preppy plum v-necks, highly flexible dance moves and limp-wristed taunting isn't exactly the most conventionally positive example of super gay blonde men of highly questionable sexuality in gaming. I don't think he's that bad, but I could see why someone might find his cardboard-cutout flamboyancy a tiny bit offensive. What do you guys and gals think?
At the very least, this video proves that Punch Out! is standing behind its retro-gameplay roots with only a touch of motion control. Check back in later for in our GDC coverage for my impressions from the expo floor.
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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