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Games For Change: Robert Yang's 'Gay Rant'

2012-06-20T18:20:00Z

Games for Change! It happened! Robert Yang was there! This link will take you to his blog post that has embedded video (I can't find the embed code, as it isn't apparent from that particular site, so go have a look). It's not much of a rant, so mch as it is making an argument for a more diverse setting in games. Name-checking some of my favorite designers, Anna Anthropy and Christine Love (as well as his own work), Yang offers such tidbits:

I think me and Anna Anthropy usually treat identity as the subject, as the pervasive context, as identity embodied within the world itself. Take a game about, I don't know, about zooming in and staring at crotch bulges -- saying that game is gay is like saying water is wet. It's the most redundant thing you can say. Instead, these games are more interested in HOW we express / perform gayness, and HOW we live as lesbians, not WHETHER you're closeted with this typical coming out story -- which is important, but we do need more types of narratives.

As a short presentation, it's to-the-point, humorous, and still manages to say quite a bit for a perhaps uninitiated audience. Originally it was meant to be a thirty-minute presentation with Todd Harper (a researcher at MIT-Gambit, which was responsible for A Closed World), but you can read about that chronicle and how the festival's logistics pared that down on Harper's blog post.

I make the assumption that most of our audience will be familiar with the games mentioned, but in case you are not, the following links will guide you to a path of queerness:

Anna Anthropy's dys4ia, about her experience with taking hormones.
Here's Anthropy's Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars, which is inspired by Wizard of Wor.
Oh, and she's recently written a book to inspire anyone to make games, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters. I've not yet read it, but it is on the to-read list.
don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story was among my favorites last year. Many thanks to Christine Love for making it.
Meanwhile, Analogue: A Hate Story is available on Steam or on Love's own site.
Then there's MIT-Gambit's A Closed World.
Here is Yang's Radiator, about a gay divorce (as he says, gay marriage is soooo 2011).
Then there's Condom Corps, which allows you to stare at men's crotches to fit them with the right size condom.

We've covered most of these, but not all, and I will look into making sure we have explications/reviews for the ones not already mentioned on the site. Meanwhile, enjoy!

On Assassin's Creed: Liberation & Female Protagonists

2012-06-05T21:15:00Z

Remember this gem? It was the creative director for Assassin's Creed III talking about why his game did not feature a female protagonist. Color me confused when I saw rumors over the weekend that there would be a PS Vita game featuring Aveline, a French black woman in New Orleans.

Assassin's Creed: Liberation, as Wootini covered during the Sony Press Conference, is coming this October, also bundled with a new Crystal White version of the handheld. As someone who has never really considered a bundle, I will admit to actually being tempted (beyond the fact that I don't really want white consoles)! For me, it's more of an issue of support: yes, I want to support more things like this. Particularly since I looked at her outfit and instantly not only didn't feel like I was supposed to be a lecherous straight guy to enjoy it, but liked it much more than her counterpart Connor's outfit.

Of course, we don't know a lot of actual information as yet, so it's hard to gauge what exactly is going on in this realm.

]]> So the questions I am left asking, and that I see echoed around in various corners of discussion, is why is this on the Vita? Is it meant to be a system seller? I know a handful of people now interested in picking up either this bundle or a Vita sooner. Yet this is purely anecdotal, and I am not entirely sure on the business predictions of such a decision.

Or, more cynically, is this an attempt to put out a bone to people asking for a female protagonist, and if it underperforms, being able to point out that they gave us a black female protagonist, and things didn't sell? It's really difficult to gauge, considering Ubisoft does not seem to have had a unified message prior to this. Considering its proposed release date of the end of October, and the fact that it has been 'build from the ground up,' it has to have been in development for a while.

Therefore, I am confused, excited, and not entirely sure what to expect until more information gets released over the course of the next few months. Would I consider purchasing a Vita for this? Yes. On the other hand, I already had plans to purchase on in the future.

Then again, this was perhaps the most interesting tidbit from Sony's press conference concerning the Vita, considering it seemed a full-fledged game, and not just a wholesale tie-in to the main product (which this still is, either some major deviations). Which means the more I type and process this information, the more I hope my cynical side is not the winner in this debate, because Aveline and Connor both potentially serve as interesting protagonists.

After all, it is very difficult not to see some manner of statement being made when the two protagonists for your games set during the American Revolution are not white. Potentially, there is an entirely different perspective to teach, particularly for people in the United States who know many of the more common stories and white figures in their country's fight for independence. They are both given agency through power structures that have been codified and struggled in the same empires that are seeking to subjugate and control them now. In fact, given the U.S.'s history for African and Native Americans, Connor and Aveline's fights for independence will have a bitter note to them.

Contemporary Diablo; Or, A Review Of Social Elements

2012-05-29T15:15:00Z

It's been twelve years since I waited excitedly for the Amazon purchase my mother had made for the family: Diablo 2. In that time, a lot has happened not only in games, but in how we interact online. LiveJournal is dead, MySpace came and went, Facebook went from a private network open to select colleges to being public(ly traded). Blizzard has also launched the most financially successful MMO we have yet seen. Every console can now connect online, while most boast achievements that are tacked on to our digital presence, marking us with varying degrees of prowess/interest. With these factors, it is easier to make sense of what Diablo 3 presents us.

Having not played World of Warcraft in five years, but having watched a roommate play for a bit a year ago, I know that achievements now exist; it was among the first things that caught my eye when playing the stress-test weekend beta. When playing this copy, it was no different; as someone who does not see achievements as necessarily evil, I know it already has made me experiment some with the classes, letting me know of different ways I could build a class, without being hampered to solely building towards them (I've already been storing equipment for a battlemage type build). What I did not immediately expect was being told when other friends had achieved something of note, being able to click on that achievement, and being in a different game, but receiving messages congratulating me on beating the game, reaching level 50, or finding some sidequest.

The thing is, I actually enjoy that touch. It can be turned off, but my experience has been bolstered by the camaraderie of playing that particular type of game. As someone who played both previous installments with his family over LAN, and no longer lives on the same landmass as they, it creates a new type of social experience for a game I have always experienced with others. Which is not for everyone, and I imagine will turn off quite a few people; for others it will pass by as something that just is, because they are so accustomed to the social networks that game systems are increasingly becoming.

Which is great, because the plot and writing are on the same level as most of the Diablo novels. I cringed while reading most of those, the exception being Mel Odom's The Black Road. In fact, having read the novels, some of the game's terms and concepts actually made sense to me, where otherwise the game waits forever to actually define them.

]]> Then again, while I had an interest in the lore and storybuilding of the Diablo world, I also know that for a number of people the game is click-click-loot-level-loot-click-click-die-click in varying patterns (don't get me wrong, I'm that way too!). Diablo 3 very earnestly wants to tell a story, but it does so in some bizarre fashions. Typically, if a cutscene is given, I am a fan of the in-game method of doing so, however, the story this game tries to tell, paired with the art style they are using do not mesh well. Paired further with the writing, I have found that I can quite happily skip past them when playing with alts, or going through the higher difficulties.

Diablo 3 is also so full of pop references and nudge-you-in-the-ribs jokes, it seems that while it wanted to tell a story, the more important experience they wanted to craft was for longevity: discover all these in-jokes, get these humorously named achievements, use the auction house when you reach a stumbling block in the higher difficulties, then use the auction house yourself to make money to purchase more! So, the story certainly exists, but it is almost trite and meaningless when contrast with the rest of the experience on offer. It is a B-movie plot with some stellar names attached (Jennifer Hale and Claudia Black make an appearance!), but still a B-movie plot.

Which is fine, and while I perfectly understand the philosophy behind making sure there are stretch goals and amusements on offer once the plot has been discovered, it begs the question of why there are so many cutscenes through which I must press space to skip, or why a follower will repeat the same lines over and over, as if I haven't heard the same noble savage-y joke about the witch doctor offering the enchantress a lizard to eat enough already. This is less a hindrance when you are playing with others, which did improve the game substantially for myself (even if only to see who could skip past a scene the fastest). I even have an almost nightly session of 'Diabros' who just made it to Nightmare Act IV last night. See, aren't they cute?

Given this push toward the social, where the game lacks it seems very odd. When looking over my friend list, I can see what character a friend is playing, their level, and on which quest they are. Great! I cannot see which difficulty at which they may be playing, though. There's also the standard 'here are the people with whom you recently played that are not on this list already' list. This would be fine, if it did not buffer itself between the online and offline friends you already do have.Upon looking through friends' hero lists, I can see what level they are, all manner of information about their stats, and yet I have to know that the difference between a softcore and hardcore character is blue and red flames on their base, respectively.

Even in communication the game seems to be stuck. The standard of navigating tells via keyboard exists just fine and dandy. There are even chat channels into which I could wade, though that interest has yet to develop. Yet there is no way to create a private channel among friends, to chat while playing in discrete games. However, typing itself can be a bit of a bother when running from an elite pack who is demolishing your character, so the lack of in-game voice capability of any sort seems somewhat odd (though from what I have heard of the in-game chat in their other games makes me wonder if they just didn't want to bother giving mediocre service).

So, in the day of social networks, that terrifying feeling I had the first time I ran around in Tristram cathedral is completely gone; given how social this game can be from the beginning, it may have been necessary. Considering how rare it is to get actual sentiment that is not on either the extreme or sardonic scale on Twitter, Facebook, and so forth, running through the dark, dodging missiles from an enemy you cannot see does not have as poignant a punch. The game is still tense, sometimes brilliantly so, but the macabre elements set a style, not a tone.

For the most part, I am mostly fine with that, though. What will be really interesting is to see how a world that is constantly online, and voicing their opinions, and expecting changes, patches, etc. more frequently will shape the future of the game to come. I imagine as long as I have friends playing, I will keep coming back in fits and spurts to experience slaying demons, gather loot, and try to max my skills and numbers to my liking. Oh, and dress up my dolls. That's fun too.

Preview: Flame War

2012-05-24T14:30:00Z

Recently I was contacted by, Fun to 11, the company responsible for Miskatonic School for Girls regarding another Kickstarter project he had set up: Flame War. The basic premise is that you are in control of threads on a forum (or a comment section--it's pretty open-ended in that regard), and looking to have the most engagement without things getting ugly.

The measure of success, or how you win, is by accumulating the most interaction: the most single cards in a thread?

How does that happen? In a fairly simple and straightforward manner, you start a thread with any card, and then anyone can post to that thread with a card whose numeric value is equal or greater to the current top card; they likely will, since you can put down two cards every turn. The goal is to close three threads and have the most cards by the end of the game.

If it sounds fairly simple, it's because it is.

]]> The history behind the game is that this was designed by Andy Chambers as a sort of back-pocket game. A simple card game you have on hand whenever you have 10-20 minutes to spare, and want something that'll move fast. Chambers's design credentials include Warhammer 40K: Second Edition and being the creative director of Starcraft 2. Therefore, he has some chops.

Back to the game, however.

In terms of play, it becomes slightly more complex the more players you have. The deck of cards is more likely to run out, for instance, and you are potentially facing attacks from two sides, as well as needing to put a stop to those fronts from winning.

Players may close any of their own threads before they place cards, which creates an interesting strategy, because they cannot close a thread that currently has a flame on top of its stack, and you can't place two cards on your own thread to then close it. The strategy becomes one of almost obfuscation and redirection: pointing out other threats so that you may be left alone either due to people focusing their powerful cards somewhere else.

Mechanically simple, and thematically amusing. With cards such as Brony, Sexbait, and Banhammer, the deck includes flavor text for each comment/post that occurs, and you are essentially dealing with points, counterpoints, and that ever infamous Thread Jack. Which means your job, as a forum moderator/community manager, is to encourage as lively a discussion as possible, making sure it has a valid point and counterpoint, and then closing it when it's run its course. The longer a thread goes on, the more likely it is to have a flame war attempt at some point, and the question is how you deal with that.

Dealing with flames involves either posting a higher-numbered card, or using a few special abilities cards have, such as moving a post or delivering the banhammer. The design is such that you cannot close a thread on someone being nasty: you must address it. It's a good general rule in life, even if it is just removing that person.

Its appeal is largely as a quick game to play with a handful of friends while going somewhere and wanting something to do. However, for those of us who frequent a number of forums and comment sections, and have ever moderated them, there is also the novel appeal of seeing played out the discussions we have all seen out and about. At the same time, unless your sensibilities are very, very sensitive, it's quite inoffensive. The goal is not to show actual, head-bangingly frustrating flames, as to get the general point across.

The Kickstarter has already met its goal, and still has ten days to go. If you'd like to help it reach stretch goals, and become a backer, here's the link. Otherwise, I'm sure it will be for sale later, much like Miskatonic

A copy of this game was provided by Fun to 11. It has been played with two, three, and one player emulating multiple players for testing things.

Let's Chat: Diablo 3 Online & Future Review

2012-05-22T14:30:00Z

In the past week, while battling demons in Sanctuary, I've flitted in and out of groups with Bauske and EccentricTomboy (hoping to catch Dryden at some point or another), and am still working on a review. In fact, much like the Sonic 4: Episode 2 review yesterday, I am thinking of asking our other writers to proffer some opinions as well, so we get a range for you to select.

We don't do scores here at GayGamer anymore. Partly because we're not aggregated by any sources, so it doesn't matter if we do. Partly because we do still offer a conclusion paragraph that tends to tell you what you want to know if you want to quickly ascertain whether a game is for you or not. It also means we can theoretically have more fun with what we post about games.

Now, about that always-online thing for Diablo 3. Beyond the first day, I haven't had much problem with it, to be honest. A few lag hiccups here and there that make me nervous to ever run a hardcore character, but otherwise it's been fairly smooth sailing. My first day in the game was actually in a four-person group with EccentricTomboy, Bauske, and one other. We didn't get much of the plot: a four-person brawl on screen tends to mean lots of colors, bashing, and fun, but doesn't give much time to actually stay awhile and listen. That may be okay, though.

I've also tried public games, to have people join, sit there, and not respond to me, nor actually play the game. It's worrisome. Anyone who has played has surely heard all the rumors and speculation about hacking through achievements? Or replicating your login session so that they can get into your account without needing your password (thereby ignoring authenticators as well)? Blizzard has released a statement about what to do, but hasn't actually detailed anything.

Which makes sense: why give potential griefers more ammunition?

I'm just not joining public games again until something is cleared up (and maybe not even then--I'm a fan of exchanging Battletags and talking with people I know). So, what about you?

Has your Diablo experience been wrought with lag, disconnects, or being hacked? Is this pretty firmly cementing all the reasons an always-online experience for a game which can still theoretically be played single-player is a disaster? Vent! Let us know.

QFG's Successor

2012-05-21T16:30:00Z

Over on Joystiq this past Friday, Rowan Kaiser wrote up what makes the Quest for Glory franchise so amazing. Which led me to further thinking on the game series, and how it has influenced other games. Which is to say, in my opinion, I can see influences in a lot of places (particularly in BioWare titles). That is the topic for another post, however, as today I am more interested in figuring out what games have come closest to this particular RPG and adventure hybrid.

Recently I have been trying my hand at writing using ChoiceScript, which is used to make those lovely Choice Of games (Dragons, Vampires, and Zombies, oh my!). In reading up on how they handled choice and advancement, I came across this page, which describes their use of stats.

While the Choice of Games folk want you to make meaningful decisions, they came up with a method that seeks not to have them creating a labyrinthine novel with which you interact. Which is very similar to the QFG style: use stats to deterine a pass/fail option. What that means is your decisions matter in that they determine how your stats will increase, which in turn affects what you will succeed or fail at in future endeavors.

]]> Despite my liberal arts degree, I am a chap enamored with numbers. If you give them to me in a game, I am likely to stare at them lovingly and obsess about increasing or decreasing them as the situation merits (like the fact that my Nightmare-Act 2-running Witch Doctor is currently sitting around 1200 damage). The one downside to QFG that does not invade on my nostalgia is the ennui that would develop while grinding for my stats to be the absolute maximum to import into the next game. This was particularly wearisome in the second game, where you have a time limit that is much more stringent than the other games.

The wonderful aspect of the Choice games is that while I know those stats exist, and I will consult them while making decisions (though sometimes I am not opposed to failing, particularly in the titles where it does not end the game, but adds curious consequences), but I do not obsess over them, how to game them, and what it all means. This entire method reminds me a lot of the QFG series, whose choices were entirely limited by what you could do based on ability (which is opposed by the BioWare method).

In fact, it's the early tropes of adventure games that holds QFG back in the regard of having an outcome failing and then not being able to continue. Which is what makes the lack of plentiful of titles that more closely emulate the series somewhat disheartening. Had the fifth entry been more successful, and not been weighed down by the shenanigans that were happening at Sierra at the time, I wonder if we would have seen this hybrid model succeed more in the 3D game realm. Ah well, perhaps it's just wishful thinking.

Jackie Jumps Over The Candlestick

2012-05-15T14:45:00Z

Reading over Rob Zacny's excellent piece on The Darkness II, You Don't Know Jackie, I realized I had never actually written what I wanted about the game; particularly since I rather enjoyed the first one and felt it has been an under appreciated game. I don't necessarily disagree with Zacny, about the tiring aspects of the arcade point shoot-em-up qualities, or the fact that the centuries old brotherhood you're fighting doesn't really propel the plot in an interesting fashion. However, what I took from the game was its thematic concerns with what reality is.

The first game's brilliance came in how it questioned free will, particularly in a videogame. Whenever I am asked about moments in gaming that truly affected me, my mind jumps back to that moment where the titular Darkness stops me from interacting with a cutscene. It is a cutscene: I'm not supposed to be interacting with it, but the fact that the game went out of its way to make sure I understood why, was particularly brilliant. The rest of the game blurs in that fashion, but it was such a defining moment that it had me wonder what exactly Jackie had control over.

The answer was: whatever I could control, and nothing more. Jackie had no free will. He was a puppet not only to the Darkness that lived inside him and controlled him forcibly at times, but my controller, which dictated how he even fought, which powers he learned, and moved him about as a doll in particularly dark set pieces.

Given such, I am less interested in the small pieces that make up an Aristotelian plot diagram for our anti-hero Jackie Estacado, and more interested in what the game tries to push in terms of philosophical questions.

There be spoilers ahead!

]]> In The Darkness II, this happens to be reality.

Between sections of accruing points from impaling, slicing, and shooting enemies, there are segments where Jackie ends up in an asylum. The premise is that Jackie may well be delusional and crazy: the same cast of characters he deals with in the other world (mostly consisting of his mob companions and his antagonist) are there -- including his dead girlfriend Jenny. The doctors treat his visions about the Darkness and stories he tells as a dangerous episode. It's certainly not a new storytelling technique, but it hasn't quite worn out its welcome, particularly when dealing with demonically possessed mob bosses.

All of this is fine and dandy until you reach a crucial point in the game: do you accept the asylum's reality and stay with Jenny? Do you instead deny this reality, reject the asylum, and jump to your death?

The former option sees you dancing with Jenny, the game over. It ends with you dancing with Jenny, as you have in a former portion of the game (an actual illusion, no matter which way you slice it), which begs the question of why she is being so chummy to Jackie. Either she had connections to Jackie before, and he is not a crazed stalker with a fixation on one of his mental health care workers, she just happens to have had that profession, or this is the false reality.

Of course, what constitutes a false reality in games is difficult to say: is Jackie happy? In this ending, he is no longer shown to be harming anyone, and at peace.

The other ending sends Jackie to hell, to find he has awoken the Angelus, which has taken Jenny's form. He has no peace and is stuck in Hell.

Neither ending is ideal, and the question of which is 'real' largely becomes which we prefer. It is difficult to say either is the 'real' ending, particularly as I like the thought of ending Jackie's torment, even if that might be because he is stuck in a fabricated world where he is a prisoner in a mental asylum. In that world he is no longer necessarily cursed with the Darkness, and caught in a neverending cycle of violence as he visits it upon people, to have it come back on him, and then seek to revenge himself.

Much like the comics on which they are based, I'm not particularly interested in the finer bits of The Darkness mythos. It reads as pulp that isn't to my taste (I actually picked up one of the comics, regretting it once I read through the pamphlet in my hand). However, it would be great if the game universe kept pushing questions such as this, with the minimally amusing gameplay, and managed to downplay dead girlfriends coming back as angelic figures in a cliffhanger ending.

Perhaps in another reality, they have that game.

ClosetShep

2012-05-14T16:15:00Z

The last time I had a piece on Kotaku I was a bit smarmy/angry. It happens sometimes.

This time, I wrote about my experiences with the closetShep playthrough I had of the Mass Effect series. It only reflects my experience, and given other peoples' coming out stories (they are quite individual in most cases), I figured I would provide the link here for those of you who might want to read through it. A quick snippet:

As someone who did enjoy the series, I wanted to lovingly mock it while pointing out its parallels to the thinking behind such policies as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." But before I could do that, those points became irrelevant: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is no longer in effect, and there are now options for players to allow Shepard to experience two male same-sex romances.

If any of you attempted a similar run, I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts!

Samus Supports Same-Sex Marriage

2012-05-11T16:45:00Z

McSweeney's can often be visited for a quick chuckle and guffaw. Thanks to my friends Regina and Alex, I found this particular piece, from the perspective of Samus Aran.

Which is to say she supports same-sex marriage because she herself is a lesbian.

The entire read is worthwhile, but here's a little snippet to grab your attention.

Why have I kept this a secret for so long? That's hard for me to say. The nature of my work forces me to silence. Working as mercenary, it's far better to let my arm-cannon do the talking. Plus, the way I chose to express myself tended towards the unorthodox. I wrote a book of poems entitled Morphing Inside My Varia Suit, which failed to find a publisher. I would flit between one relationship and another, hopping inside my gunship and speeding off to the next planet before things got too serious. Then the Mother Brain decided to outlaw same-sex marriage on planet SR-388. Planets Tallon IV, Aether and my birth planet K-2L followed suit. What year are we living in? Earth Year 2009? It's time for the universe to redefine its narrow concept of marriage.

Either Kickstarter doesn't exist in Ms. Aran's universe, or she needs to get on using it as a way to publish her book of poetry. Who knows, she might give Sappho a run for her money.

Also, I am now looking at that arm-cannon in an entirely new light.

Monkeying Around

2012-05-11T16:25:00Z

A few months back I finally gave Enslaved: Odyssey to the West a go, and found myself enjoying it, with caveats. What really made the game for me, though, was imagining Monkey, one of the protagonists, and the one you control, as a gay man.

There wasn't any one thing in particular that made me think this, and I don't see it as demonstrably provable--it's just that the game never dispelled me of that notion either. Given his exaggerated hip swagger, it recalled nights in various clubs, or walking down Halsted during Market Days in Chicago. Which is to say, it had that certain male sexuality that people like Calvin Klein have worked to bring into the mainstream; which is not to say it is exclusively homosexual in nature, but it is from where I was coming when approaching this particular game.

So how did the game actually play out?

Well, what amused me is that there seemed some vague plotline about how Monkey and Trip were actually developing something. I say vague because I know in the tradition of these things, I am supposed to believe that the obviously dripping feelings they were exchanging were indicative of a possible romance.

I saw it more as a close friendship, as I have had with many friends, regardless of their sex.

]]> Which meant that the concern Monkey shows allowed for a friendship that was endearing in how he interacted with Trip. It began to read more as if I was a big brother to Trip (at least in size), and she was an antagonistic sibling who was a bit forceful in her way of getting me to help her.

Now, this is all without having played the DLC, so I am not sure if anything is codified in that particular piece of narrative. Even with the race against Pig, it felt like I was protecting a woman I figured would not be interested in his advances (even if only because she was a bit more focused on her family right then, and didn't want that distraction).

So, did that change the game? As ever, the answer is yes and no.

For me, it did change how I saw Monkey, because many of his motivations had a different appeal, particularly in regards to Trip. I could just have easily seen those had I decided that he was any shade of sexuality on the spectrum and a romance was not budding. It was just the shorthand that worked in my particular instance.

On the other hand, while the game does not dispel this notion, it doesn't wholly support it either. There is something to be said about symbols and what they can mean. Of course, this can be the particular appeal of this medium, right? It's interactive, and if there is nothing to dispel the notion that a given person is gay or bisexual (after all, just because you're in an opposite-sex pairing at some point, doesn't mean you're exclusively straight), I can imagine that world. Unless the game is authored to the point where I have absolutely no say, or no role to play, and can only advance the story in the proper motivations, I do get to imagine what is going on. Why am I doing these things? What are the boundaries of a particular friendship?

Which is not to say I plan on being content just applying this to all future playthroughs: it's just as important as ever that scripted experiences that acknowledge sexuality outright can be made. Now to be really interested, let's see how such interactions actually affect the gameplay in some way.

Quest For Happiness

2012-05-10T17:50:00Z

In case you do not understand both my pseudonym and little avatar down there (real name is Denis, for the curious), I am an unabashed fan of the Quest for Glory series. Today, GOG has finally put the series up for purchase and download.

My love for the series started when I was around nine, and my mother had installed the games for me to play, thinking I would enjoy them more than just the traditional adventure games I had already played. There were a few reasons for that. First, there was my love of puns and language, and being able to find all these cultural references and then educate myself on them (these games served as my entry-point into both Monty Python and the Marx Brothers).

Then there was the fact that in terms of adventure games, it wasn't as rigid. This was a game of choice! Not choice as in choosing an outcome for a morally ambiguous question, as in with BioWare's latest, but more akin to what we see in the Choice Of games: choices based on your skill. Many puzzles had at least three different ways to approach them: as a stealthy thief, a cunning wizard, or a brute fighter. Just choosing one of those (or later becoming a paladin) did not block off the other choices, though.

Which ties into the third reason: the RPG elements. There was combat, sure. However, there were stats, and instead of leveling up, if you wanted to become better at a stat, you used it. Wanted to be more intelligent? Cast spells. Want to be better at throwing? Throw things. Dodging? Avoid the cheetaur claws!

So, the game is now available for download for the first time, at $9.99. It comes with all five games. The first game comes with both the EGA and VGA versions (former is parser and typing based, the latter point-and-click). If parsers are not your thing, and you want to go through the second game, there is also the AGDI fan remake to give a try.

Have fun!

P.S. In the fifth game, Andre the fisherman just so happens to be queer. Give him some flowers and watch as he mentions a jealous boyfriend.

Video: Classic SNES Games In Real Life

2012-05-09T18:15:00Z

Sent in as a tip by reader Steve J., the above video mixes certain nostalgic charm, for those of us who recall the SNES as a most lovable platform, with what appear to be varying doses of photography and Google Maps-esque images. Personally, I would be rather amused to see pixelated street fighters roaming about.

If you happen to enjoy the music, you can thank Triplefox. The album, Level Up! OST is available for free download (with some Creative Commons licenses for the songs) right here.

Teens

2012-05-09T16:00:00Z

Over the past several weeks I have had the opportunity to engage with a group of people with whom I rarely interact: teenagers. From ages twelve to seventeen. As someone who is too young to have friends with children that are teenagers, it had completely slipped my mind that there was an entire spectrum of people who rarely made an appearance in my life. To both groups I was introduced as someone who writes about games online. As I am sure would have happened when I was growing up, their ears almost instantly perked up, and conversation was had.

What I observed was fairly simple and confirmed what I, and I believe many others, think about gaming in general, and in youth. Of course, this is not a full-on study with the proper controls and such, so it should all be taken with a grain of salt. As in, this is likely not wholly representative.

First? Almost every single person gamed. Whether it was on their iPads, phones, through browsers, or what the media tends to think of as more 'traditional' gaming. Everybody, young men and women both. While some young women talked about various fashion designing games they played, I really did not see it absolutely different than the group of boys who discussed their love of Minecraft. Creating things can be a lot of fun, particularly when in the confines of a structured ruleset.

Second? For a good portion of them, motion gaming and iDevices are just not cutting it long-term, though they do enjoy gaming-on-the-go. Motion gaming has largely failed to give them the experience they desire: either a narrative or a game with a more complex set of goals and strategies. Whereas iDevices? Cited as having too few games that really engross them, instead providing more games that are played between classes for a quick distraction. I do imagine more will change in these avenues, especially as many remarked on enjoying being able to give voice commands through the Kinect.

The last observation? Kickstarter has yet to have any real appeal for them. Which is great, in many ways, as they are not yet with tons of disposable income. When discussing games that were available, they saw large success stories, and found it was largely by designers and properties that had no real sway on the games they played, or with which they grew up. Right now, at least in games, Kickstarter seems to have a real appeal to nostalgia and a desire to bring back portions of gaming we seem to have lost through either an evolution of the genre, or a fade into obscurity.

So, there you are, my non-scientific study of what I learned about teenagers. I am sure there are some of you who have more experience with them on either a weekly or daily basis (or even are teenagers yourselves, hi!), so please let me know if any of these observations seem out of place. Largely, though? Outside of the Kickstarter thing? Is it that surprising to find teenagers largely have similar opinions to everyone else playing? This is what I get for only reading about the supposed effects of gaming on them, or studies on them, rather than just talking to them. Mea culpa.

BioWare Interviews Writers Patrick Weekes & Dusty Everman

2012-05-07T20:15:00Z

Being late to the party, I only finished Mass Effect 3 this past weekend. While I was pleased as pie that there was an exclusively homosexual romance in the game, it was not the one I pursued with Sebastian Shepard, for a number of reasons. However, this morning I was pleased to find that BioWare's blog had up an interview with the two writers responsible for both the male and female exclusively homosexual romances: Patrick Weekes and Dusty Everman.

Which is to say: this is not about the ending. Nor is it spoiler-free (in terms of game plot, yes, but not in terms of things that happen during the romances themselves). Spoilers will be below that handy dandy cut, contained in quotations I found particularly worthy of attention. Which is not to say this has always been how BioWare has presented itself, but hopefully is something that indicates future thought processes.

I still recall the Dragon Age forums having official posts concerning the fact that having a purely homosexual romance of any sort could be seen as a waste of resources: these are choices that would not be selected often enough to justify the cost, or the time spent away from other portions of the game.

What's changed? This is purely supposition, but I imagine it has a lot to do with budget, the growth of the series, and numbers. After all, in the day of internet connections, achievements, and our save-files having markers that tell who we played, what we did, and whom we romanced, they have quite a bit of data on how many people are engaging in these romances. When refuting the privileged straight male gamer, Gaider made note that the numbers they have are not insignificant.

Which makes sense to me, as someone who rarely roleplays himself in an RPG. I do still like to see same-sex romances when I can, though. Or perhaps same-sex flings. Depends on the character. However, it seems I am constantly reading reports of straight men who play as a female Shepard, and romancing Garrus, or going for one of the female companions in their crew. Funny how that works.

But, to the quotations!

]]> How did you approach writing a gay character in Mass Effect 3?

Patrick Weekes: Liara's relationship in Lair of the Shadow Broker can be with players of either gender, so I was familiar with writing dialog that needed to work for a same-sex romance. Nevertheless, I'm a straight white male - pretty much the living embodiment of the Patriarchy - and I really wanted to avoid writing something that people saw and went, "That's a straight guy writing lesbians for other straight guys to look at."

I also really wanted the romance with Traynor to be positive. One of my gay friends has this kind of sad hobby in which she watches every lesbian movie she can find, trying to find ones that actually end up with the women not either dying or breaking up. I think the most positive one she's found is "D.E.B.S." I wanted to avoid any kind of tragic heartbreak, to make this a fundamentally life-affirming relationship... at least, as much as possible within Mass Effect 3′s grim war story.

Dusty Everman: I shared the concerns Patrick had about writing something that felt real. I've never been romantic with another guy, so I couldn't write from personal experience. Also, there seemed to be extra pitfalls associated with a male same-sex romance. Some players have concerns over being "ninja romanced" - where a relationship shifts from friendly to romantic to the player's surprise - and those concerns seem greater for same-sex romances.

Then, further along, Everman notes the following:

I believe that by the 22nd century, declaring your gender preference will be about as profound as saying, "I like blondes." It will just be an accepted part of who we are. So I tried to write a meaningful human relationship that just happens to be between two men.

They both note that they would love feedback on either Traynor or Cortez, so if you played through them, please feel free to leave your opinions in the comments, and I'll make sure that they manage to see this.

Video: RuPaul's Glamazon

2012-04-11T13:30:00Z

It is not often I get to mix my love of games and with my love for RuPaul's Drag Race. So far I have only had one opportunity, which was interviewing Pandora Boxx after noticing her frequent talk of mowing through zombies and jumping around platforms that are not on her feet.

Then came the video that was released yesterday for RuPaul's Glamazon. Now, I am keeping this below that handy-dandy cut so that you can avoid spoilers, in case you have not seen the last episode, and don't know who the final three are.

Suffice to say, however, the video itself may be my favorite of the ones released yet, and not just because it makes plenty of references to men in dresses channeling Godzilla realness in what looks to be a version of Rampage with drag queens instead of the furrier and scalier monsters to which we're accustomed. Personally, this appeals to me much more than the thought of Ru's head being misappropriated and placed on the body of Darth Vader (which is not nearly fabulous enough for her, no sir).

So, if you want to see the video brand-spanking-new for the finale episode in two weeks, or are not caught up yet, this is the last reminder to not make that jump. Meanwhile, I will dream of a possible future that includes drag cosplay challenges.

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