Final Fantasy 12

I have always been a big fan of the FF series. I love the art work, the cut scenes, the story line, and the somewhat complicated characters. This series has definitely evolved over time because the main character always remains the same; the tough but small blond kid with an in-your-face attitude and a heart of gold. Inspiring isn't it?

But something is nagging at me. I can't figure out what exactly, but this time around playing FF just feels a little off. ? The experience is different, not as enjoyable as it was when I first picked up FF 7 back in high school. Back then I even played the original version on my old NES, which I still have. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe I've changed...maybe we've grown apart. :(

It's not surprising though, FF hasn't really changed at all in the past ten years. Die-hard fans of the series refuse to admit that they've been playing the same game for their whole teenage life. Each new version is prettier than the last...like I said before, the characters will always remain the same. There was one unique deviation in the series and that was FF 9. It's bubbly characters put a different twist on the old game, but really nothing changed besides the art work. The same characters are still represented.

Look at the boy hero, for instance. He's tough, but short, blond, has attitude, and will end up saving the world, so he also has a heart of gold. Then look at the girl heroine, she looks almost exactly like Tifa from FF 7, only a little more fleshed out. There's the standard big guy, the wild guy (with appropriately red hair) and the reclusive sorcerer.

Hmmm. Why am I still playing these?

Well, for one thing, although it is true that each new version is essentially an improved copy of itself, FF does have some new features that are new and exciting. Like this new battle set-up, for instance. The old games would break away from the world and the battle field existed almost on a separate plane from the adventure game. It was kind of like a cut-scene in itself, but here FF 12 follows other games' style of walking and encountering monsters that you either choose to engage or run from. Magic is now shared amongst party members so that only one kind needs to be purchased instead of having to equip each character individually. But still, if this is all FF 12 has to offer...why am I still playing it?

I've been thinking about marketing and how game series like Final Fantasy come out with one game, and then never stop. However, although it is kind of dull, it still works. I bought FF 12 with no hesitation because my past experiences in playing the FF series has always been enjoyable, I never stopped to think that even though I liked all the others, I might not like them anymore. After having played Katamari Damacy and its sequel We Love Katamari, I'm finding the FF series lacking in entertainment. It's almost like a ball-and-chain with me now, I am compelled to continue on with the series because I'm afraid that if I stop playing each new game I might miss something spectacular. This addiction needs to end! And what kind of video game programmers rely on so heavily on graphics? God of War is entertaining because of its simplicity, but the FF series keeps getting more and more complicated with bigger and better graphics and more expansive, movie-like cut-scenes. When will it end?!?

It's almost unfair that games like Final Fantasy can still be so captivating, while games like Katamari Damacy are hardly known. By the way, I've been looking for Katamari in both its forms but have yet to find it on any shelf, while Final Fantasy 12 is everywhere.

Comment on "Game Theories"

"Game Design as Narrative Architecture" by Henry Jenkins

The relationship between games and story...

I agree with what Jenkins says on page 120 about how games tell stories differently than other forms of media and "We must therefore be attentive to the particularity of games as a medium, specifically what distinguishes them from other narrative traditions." But with this statement, Jenkins is also making it appropriate to underscore the kinds of stories that can be told through video games. Just like how the Sci-Fi genre has always been classified as a lesser form of literature, so too will the games we play be less significant than what the other forms of media can portray.

Later, Jenkins goes on to say that a game designer has less control over narrative information than authors of books or filmmakers do. I do not agree with this, I think that authors and filmmakers have less control over what narrative information is released. In fact, I think that authors and filmmakers intentionally reveal more narrative information than video games do.

First, when I was younger I used to read the last page of a book first so that I know how it ended. Even today I will sometimes go to Border's Books and flip through a book that looks interesting. If I can read any random page and it peaks my interest, then I'll buy it. Also, books today have their own versions of trailers that precede the release to peak interest, like on the Today show, or any morning show for that matter that brings an author on to discuss the content of their new book.

Second, filmmakers are even more famous for revealing the most interesting aspects of their movies in the very commercial advertisements they use to generate interest. Especially where action flicks are concerned, all the best stunts and c.g. are the first things we see. Also, filmmakers and actors make up the majority of guests featured on talk shows, purely to promote a new movie. You know how on David Letterman's show or Jay Leno's show there will be an actor on promoting a new movie, and they show a clip from that movie at random, and then the actor explicates the scene for the audience? It's the same thing as going to Border's and picking up a book and flipping to a random page and reading it.

Finally, I hesitate to say that video games reveal more, or that video game designers have less control over narrative information, because buying a new video game can be a gamble. Yes, there are trailers for new games, but games have way more content to consider than books or films do, so the ratio to information being prematurely revealed is slim compared to the amount of information revealed in one, three minute movie trailer that acts as montage of all the best scenes and reveals the entire plot line. For me at least, and I'll try to keep my comments as personal and not general as possible, I am grabbed by the cover of a game, or I'll stick with a genre that I like, but I never usually research a new game before I play it the way that some people do with books and movies with their Arts & Entertainment section of the Sunday Times.

And my final point about this is that games reveal their narrative information within a sequence of events that needs to be followed by the player. If I were reading a book instead of playing a game and I wanted to know what happens next, I'd just flip the page until I got that information. You can't do that with video games, you can't even break the code with console games to find the information you're looking for, or you shouldn't! Because that's the fun behind playing video games, you need to accomplish something before any new information is revealed to you. With books and movies you can just skip ahead, and that means that authors and filmmakers have less control over narrative information than video game designers.

Easter

So this weekend I went home for Easter and it was fun. My mom still buys us 2 dozen eggs every year...just in case. I went out Sunday night to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a friend of mine. When we were kids my friend used to make me play TMNT with him, and in exchange he had to play barbies with me. It was a sweet deal until the day I got slimed, that ooze must be radioactive because it took several washings to get it out of my hair. Anyway, the movie was great. We felt a little childish watching with young kids in the theatre, but it occured to me that the makers of this new TMNT version would probably be counting on the patronage of former fans. That eventhough the story is meant for children, the event itself appeals to all ages, from kids to thirty-year olds.
Video game nostalgia brings older games to newer systems like the Wii and XBox360 which both offer the feature of downloading old favorites. The only downside to this that I've noticed is that the lag time between the action you take on the new system's controller and the response to that action on the screen. My NES never took half a second longer to respond to my jump comand, and that is a very irritating aspect to playing old games on new consoles. Frankly, I'd rather think back to 1989 when I got my first Nintendo (also the year I found out Santa was a hoax) and keep the original gaming experience a fond memory. It changes, sours when you go back to game you played as a child and you realize that it isn't as much fun as you remember, or nearly as exciting. My reflexes have changed, games today aren't as predictable.
TMNT has nothing to do with this, it just popped into my head. But TMNT was a new experience too. The animation was great, your standard save-the-world scenario, and new villains, but the ending suggested that a new TMNT would be out soon, and this time with Shredder (crossing fingers). I noticed though, that while watching the movie I was paying less attention to the plot than I was to the details, for instance do these new turtles sound like the original ones? Oooh, look, there's the scepter that brings you back in time...stuff like that.
My friend laughed every time one of the turtles made a cheesy remark that is so characteristic of TMNT style.
Overall, my friend and I had a lot of fun reminiscing, but I'm wondering if there was ever an old TV show, well old for me...80s-ish?, that was remade into a feature film specifically for an adult audience.

Katamari Damacy 2

Some thoughts that I'd like to expand on in class:

-Dr. Jones said in his chapter that he sees Katamari Damacy as a witty parody of the collecting culture surrounding video games, and that Katamari Damacy's ultimate meaning is this parody.

-He also says that it is like the campy gigantic monsters in Japanese sci-fi movies, rampaging through the streets. As well as the fight clouds and rolling snowballs from early cartoons.

I can see the resemblance between the fight clouds and out-of-control snowballs, but what the creator says later is that he wanted to make a game that was simply fun. This does not mean that Takahashi wanted Katamari Damacy to be devoid of meaning, but that the meaning is of little consiquence when compared with the pure enjoyment derived from physically playing the game. I don't think that Takahashi was downplaying any meaning that Katamari Damacy may have, but whatever meaning we can see in the game isn't necessarilly the meaning that Takahashi intended. And what's wrong with just accepting the fact that fun can be meaningful? Maybe that was Takahashi's goal, to present the world with a game that has nothing say, nothing to contribute to society at large or the gamer culture in particular, but just to be, and that could be precisely why we love it so much. It presents us with a blank slate that we build on, that we give meaning to ourselves. I don't think Takahashi's trying to pull a fast one on us, or that meaning within games isn't important. I think he's simply trying to offer up something fun and pleasant and colorful and happy.

I found this picture and the one below it on google images. This game inspires.

Legos, advertisements, cakes, knitted hats...

Ya, I know, every Harry Potter fan has at one point made or bought a hand-crochetted Hogwart's scarf, so fan manifestation of their favorite games isn't new, but doesn't something like that picture of Lego men running in stop-motion terror put a smile on your face?

-Katamari Damacy as a text.

I can see how the type of stuff collected on the Katamri can be read, or made more interesting by just focusing on umbrellas, or objects of Japanese culture. BUt once again, the player is in control of what he or she rolls over, thereby creating the text of images that slowly accumlates on the surface of the ball. From my limited experience playing Katamari Damacy, it didn't occur to me that there were levels in which you could only pick up items in significant groups. In other words, there isn't a stage that only has umbrellas, if I wanted my Katamari to only have umbrellas, I would have to be really careful and avoid everything else. I guess I'm getting back to my point about how we as the players give meaning to the game based on our choices while playing. The meaning that the advertiser of this poster gave to Katamari Damasi was one of popular media culture, you can only see audio-visual media related material on the ball of stuff (rolling through the streets of Dublin).

Speaking of rolling, on page 12, Dr. Jones says that "katamari rolling is less an allegory of labor and more a parody of labor." I liked that a lot.

On page 15, Dr. Jones says that Katamari Damacy's meaning lies within its parody, or the ability to parody...I wasn't sure because there were more than one instance where the game parodies something (subsurface)?

I also liked the description of the katamari as having the look and feeling of database arrays. clever But as I would see it, those data base arrays are meaningful, but only because they were intentionally constructed by the player. Is Dr. Jones making this implicit in his statements? That the player is ultimately the all-powerful meaning giver? Maybe he is making that implicit and I'm just not getting it.

This is one scene from Lost in Translation where Charlotte (Scarlette Johansen) is walking around in an arcade center in Tokyo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17GYe8-NQc0

I completely agree that Katamari Damacy is related to the Japanese aracade culture of collecting game related objects. It is normal within that culture to find cows with snacks with toys because that is what you'd find in any UFO catcher in Japan, and it certainly makes sense that we as Americans would find that a little funny (absurd-funny). But wasn't Katamari Damacy made specifically for that culture, and then, like all other popular Japanese games, it was translated to English and shipped off to America for us to enjoy. So any possible meaning we as Americans could give Katamari Damacy, although valid, would be essentially flawed because we are not apart of the culture for which this game was intended. And any meaning it would have initially had for the Japanese arcade culture would be probably be Lost in Translation.

Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy

Once again, I found myself at the weekly LOST party when one of my friends popped in a video game before the show started, and this week it was Katamari Damacy. Wow. I love this game, it's so unique and simple and addictive. I was confused at first about how to operate the the ball, and my friend said "Don't worry about it, it's just like driving a tank." This, I think is a testament to the level in which video games have influenced our culture...not only has my friend never driven a tank, but he can safely assume how to operate one and can assume that I knew how to operate one as well...which I did, of course.
I have to get this game for PS2. I was playing FF12 for a while, but the adventure aspect of it was getting a little dull, what I now realize I needed was some good old destructive fun. Can you even say that it's a puzzle game? No, I don't think so. It's not really an adventure game either because it's purely a one-way interaction.
The only thing that bothered me about this game was the limited field of vision. You can't look up or down, just ahead and behind if you push down on the joysticks. I kept getting warning signals that other larger things were on their way, but I could never see where they were coming from and before I knew it I'd lost a turnip.
I'll expand on these thoughts after reading chapter 2.

God of War II

I was at friend's house the other day for our weekly LOST party, and for about an hour before the show started I watched him play God of War for Playstation 2. I was very impressed by this game, and surprised that such a sophisticated single player adventure game existed for the PS2. Then I was even more shocked when I learned that God of War II had been released for the PS2 as well, instead of for PS3 or XBox360. Seriously, this game is awesome.

And to emphasize just how awesome, here's the link to the New York Times article about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/arts/16Game.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The author of the article, Seth Schiesel, talks about God of War's extrodinary balance, and that the game is unique because you never get bored while playing. Being an adventure game, God of War incorporates battles, puzzles, and fun accrobatics in an even distribution. So instead of getting tired or frustrated with one level because of all the redundant puzzles (Myst, wink wink) your constant movement from one area to the next keeps your interest rapt to the screen, and never do you feel that you need to take a break from the game.

The article was published in today's (March, 16th 2007) paper, but it wasn't clear when the video game was released. The picture in the Times says it's been on the shelves since 2000, so that would make the article a tad belated, but it also proves how some games are so good that they can stand the test of time. It's really amazing that a game this good isn't brand new.

Here's the link for the God of War official website, and it's spectacular as well, at least artistically speaking.

http://www.us.playstation.com/Content/Sites/192/Info/default.html (site for both)

http://www.us.playstation.com/GodofWar2/ (site only for GoWII)

If I could go back to the beginning of the semester, I would try to convince my play group to cover God of War instead of racing. Oh well, maybe I'll change my final project topic.

Mario and Luigi go to Vice City

I was watching an episode of "Robot Chicken" the other night when I saw this skit about Mario and Luigi riding along in their cart down a cute cartoon road. They take a right turn towards a city, that the viewer finds out is actually Vice City, from Grand Theft Auto. Mario and Luigi run into a little bit of trouble, as you can imagine. It's hilarious because the creator of this cartoon used satire to meld the prominent characteristics of both popular games into one event.

watch it here on youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHd5b3Mb2eQ

I know it sounds silly, but each game really does have its own universe. And no matter how far the paratextual elements of video games extend, they very rarely extend to the universes of other video games.

One example I can think of where a video game incorporated many characters from several games into one is _____________ (fill in the blank cause I can't find the title). Anyway, it was a game that incorporated characters from Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy, Zelda etc...all the uber-popular video games, and their characters, got together for a battle in a completely separate universe. None of the worlds in which they fought (Mortal Kombat style) were interactive, you as the player only interacted with your opponent. So my point is that games' universes are separate. You can pull the characters out and put them together with other video game characters, but you can't take the video game worlds and put them together, and if you did you'd have something a-kin to the "Robot Chicken" Mario in Vice City episode; nonsense.

This hillarious cartoon shows that Mario and Luigi don't belong in a place like Vice City.

Aha! I just found something else on youtube.com about Mario in Vice City that might have been the inspiration for the cartoon creators of "Robot Chicken."

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Super Mario Mod 2 by:jessrocked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EANBQDrm

Burnout websites

XBox360's website features Burnout Revenge as one of their most promising racing games because of its realism.

These games provide chills that we could never survive in real life. Xbox 360 has brought this thrill-a-minute battle racing game into a whole new realm. Criterion and Electronic Arts, developer and publisher respectively, have dubbed this release their showcase version and have worked hard to live up to their own goals. The experience does not approach reality; it transcends reality. The graphics take Burnout Revenge on Xbox 360 up, up, and over the top. Realism in lighting effects, textures, and reflections bridges the gap between what might have been just a nice bit of fun and what has instead turned out to be an adrenaline-releasing crash-o-rama.

The controls match what you see on the screen so smoothly, there's no disconnect between what you're seeing and what you're doing.

And my personal favorite quote:

The Big Crash

Why are we here if not to crash? For Burnout Revenge, Xbox 360 opened a portal into the realm of possibility, the possibility of more detailed damage. Improved shader technology, for example, adds depth and dimension to vehicle damage.
Designed for realistic effect, the complexity of the damage modeling has increased. Every scratch removes paint. Every ding leaves a mark that affects the reflections in it. Pieces fall off the cars, in small bits as well as large chunks. Bumpers hang askew. Engines and other interior elements become exposed. Glass flies. Tires burn. Pile-ups explode.

Of course they do. :)

The folks at Criterion have put a big fat spotlight on the fact that you can capture highlights from your replays (up to 30 seconds for the clips) and share them with friends.

The immortalized, glamorized car crash; you can relive the excitement over and over again.

Video Games in Museums

I went to see the new Body Works exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry on Tuesday because I mistakenly thought it was a free day. TIP! There are no free days at the Museum of Science and Industry. Anyway, I was wandering around after the Body Works exhibit, when me and my friend spotted a small room with an arcade-style racing game.
We got kind of excited, and went to the racing chairs and started the game, but much to our dismay these were old racing games from the mid 90s and it wasn't fun at all. Well, maybe a little.
The point is that I'd already played this version of arcade racing in hotel lobbies all across the Midwest, and I was surprised that the Museum of Science and Industry would have them in one of their own exhibits. The purpose for the exhibit was to show how simulations work, but it was a very poor (and outdated) example of video game simulation.
Then again, museums aren't known for their up-to-date technology, in fact that is what museums mainly showcase; out-dated technology in all its ancient glory. Maybe I expected more from the Museum of Science and Industry, but I was very disappointed with that lame exhibit.

For my final project, I'd like to concentrate on the use of video games within libraries and other public places where people can game together without having to invest in game consoles and overpriced games.
For the past 15 years, most public libraries have been lending PC games to kids, and educational interactive PC programs to adults, but the video game itself has generally been scoffed at by public librarians as a poor way to spend your time. However, more demand by patrons is what's allowing the video game stigma to slowly disappear within libraries. Personally, most librarians I know play video games, so even if the demand were to stay low, video games would eventually be integrated into libraries simply because the people who run them are the ones who decide what the library is going to offer its patrons.
The same goes for museums. The curator of a museum is the one who decides out of all the materials the museum owns, which are to be the ones on display. The Field Museum has an enormous collection of artifacts from New Guinea, but none of that material is on display because the current curator prefers to showcase the artifacts from the Native American collection. Plus, that curator may have a feeling that artifacts from New Guinea wouldn't be as popular and thus the patronage will fall if he removes the actually popular Native American displays.
The Head Librarian has to make these same choices when determining what he or she will offer to the public. Perhaps in fifty years libraries across America will lend video games as often as they lend books, but that all depends on the patron demand and who is in charge. Until that day comes, museums need to stop showcasing "new" technology in their exhibits, because within 5 years it's already old and nobody cares. You would think though, that the Museum of Science and Industry could afford to update their exhibits every five years or so to reflect the current "new" technology especially considering that they never have a free day.

I just checked The Museum of Science and Industry's website for a clue as to why they have an old racing arcade game in their exhibit space and I found and old exhibit in their archives list that is all about the history of video games. http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/gameon2/index.html
CLick on tour and you'll get the list of different games and genres featured in the old exhibit. The latest games listed were from 2002, or 2003. Like most things you'll find in museums, this exhibit was designed with kids in mind and there's not much to it. The website's kind of cute though.

Reality in racing

"Burnout" for XBox360 has a side game where you have to drive your car up a ramp at high speeds and plunge it into oncoming traffic in order to create the biggest explosion. You rack up more points if the explosion causes other cars to crash and explode. This is like an elaborate, player-controlled, cut-scene which, if done properly, can last for several minutes.
Watching the massive pile-up grow in size as other cars on the road plowed into the huge wreck, I felt a sense of pride in my accomplishment because in the bottom of the screen the points kept adding up like arbitrary dollar amounts awarded to pinball players whenever the ball happens to hit anything on the board. This side game of "Burnout" is like a cause and effect experiment in chaos. The cut-scene of exploding cars and trucks is quite spectacular, and it reminds me of the quote, again, from "White Noise" where Murray exclaims that the car crash in the entertainment business is a form of art, beauty in destruction, and all that.
It's undeniable that there is a huge emphasis on the crash, not only in racing games like "Burnout" but within all forms of entertainment as well, at least within America.
There was also another side race in "Burnout" that pits you against a fellow player, or you can play it alone. The object is to cause other (specially designated) cars on the road to flip over and crash/explode. The first to destroy 10 cars wins. Recklessness is the only skill you need for these games, and an enthusiasm for destruction. You gotta really want it in order to win!
The racing game itself relies heavilly on minor crashes to gain boost points that will eventually get you over the finish line. It's a catch 22. You have to waste time crashing in order to get the power of a boost so that you can go faster and take first place. "But why should you waste time crashing into other cars?" you say. Well, it's just so much fun. Plus, you get to watch you car's paint chip a little more every time you crash and if you get into a big enough accident, your bumper will fall off. The realism that the creators of "Burnout" attempt is significant, but realism in the game and actual reality are still very much separated in the players mind. Although it is a sim game, it's not at all realistic...but it is... I think that Burnout's realism has more to do with the fakeness of its ancestral racing games than any actual physical realities to racing.
Part of its realism comes from the background art of the race tracks. They mostly take place in real cities, for example, one of the race tracks is titled "The Eternal City" which is Rome. When Betty and I played Burnout for the first time we chose this track without really thinking about it, but when the game loaded we were very surprised to feel a sense of nostalgia, because last semester Betty and I studied in the eternal city, and the game was very true to the look and feel of those crazy bendy Roman streets and alleyways.
Just a fun fact: before I left for Rome there was a news report about a high-speed chase and gun fight (by the passengers) of two sports cars in the streets of Rome. The Italian government wanted a apology from the U.S. stating that it was our fault because the Italians had reason to believe that one of the shooters was an agent for the CIA. The U.S. denied any involvement.
SO, as for the believability of Burnout, it kind of depends on how often you read the news?

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/399354

Comments for "Way of the Gun"

I'm in the middle of reading the article "Way of the Gun" and it's giving me lots of ideas for my presentation on racing games.
"Explorative Linearity": The difference between FP and Third Person perspectives in gaming is crucial, because as the author says, having a FP perspective can be narrow and confining, you can never be sure where your enemies are at. I'm pretty sure that there's a toggle feature within "Burnout" that allows the player to change from FP to ThirdP and back again, although I personally prefer the ThirdP perspective.
The author also mentioned something about "Doom" and how its popularity was attributed to its simplicity, and I agree. Keep it simple and let the player find the interest and meaning. I think the same can be said for simmulated racing because if there's too much going on in the background tracks, then the player can get distracted. If there is a very busy background, it's almost preferential to have a FP perspective, sort of like putting blinders on a horse, it helps the player focus on the track.
Semi-realism is cool too. The more realistic the cars are, the crashes are, the more popular the game will be overall. And, as I've blogged before, the crash sequences within racing games are extremely important, they almost reach the cinematic level of cut-scenes because they take you out of the game for at least 10 seconds to show you something spectacular.
Music within racing is great too, it adds to a feeling of tension. Using pop music within racing is a relatively recent phenomenon, I think, and although it's fun to listen to for a while, it also has the drawback of making the game seem outdated (that is, as soon as those songs are no longer popular) within a few years.
I have to remember also, to say something about the level of AI within the rival racers. How much variation in behavior can you as the player expect from your rivals within a racing game? When I played Super Mario Brothers as a kid I memorized the pattern of movement of my enemies so that I could get through the entire game without ever having taken a hit, but that was because the bad guys moved the same way every time. However, no two races are the same in games like "Burnout" so memorizing the course isn't enough. I know that I can set the difficulty for the tracks, but is it even possible for a begginner to win their first race? No, probably not, because the player doesn't know what to expect yet. So, practice is necessary to win, not just a dependence on "stealth" (dodging the attacks of other drivers and innocent bystanders).
But "Burnout" is different once again because the game encourages you to side-slam other vehicles for Boost points, which you'll need if you want to get ahead. It's like your being encouraged to act like a bully (pushing other cars around) but you have to keep your cool at the same time (not seriously crashing your car and waisting time in an awesome cut scene).

Myst Online

Who saw the commercial for Myst Uru Online? It was on last night. We may have talked about this in class, like everything else I mention, but what the heck.

Personal notes for simmulation presentation

In class last week I wrote down some notes that I thought might pertain to the presentation by Betty, Dan and I.
Somatic: to physically simmulate an action. dictionary.com and wikipedia were my only references, and they only gave a biological description of the word. I was thinking that I could incorporate the idea of somatic action to the player of a racing game, and how the player is literally replicating a physical action that needs to be done in order to operate the car.
There is also a certain amount of editing involved on the part of the player because it is necessary to choose the make, model and color of the car, as well as the race track and the number of opponents. In fact, the player controls pretty much everything within the racing except for how the race will turn out.
We also talked in class about how the majority of the console-based games we will and have discussed, are of Japanese origin and are inspired by Western culture. The racing game is different; it is the original if not the only game of Western, more specifically, American origin, and it is inspired by the real events of a huge American sub-culture (Nascar). Football games like Madden are also examples of simmulated games uniquely attributed to American culture.
correct me if I'm wrong.

Lost and Myst

I just finished reading Dr. Jones' chapter on Lost and Myst, and I have to say that I'm very pleased with myself. I read it under 90 minutes and I liked it a lot, Lost is my favorite TV show, so really everything made sense. I've also recently read Our Mutual Friend, and played Myst, so the whole article cemented those common threads I'd already started to unravel on my own. I'm also very glad that Lost isn't just someone's imagination, dream, or purgatory.
I liked learning about the paratextual qualities of the show, although I've never taken part in the Lost Experience game just because I've been afraid that I'd get too involved in it. Stuff like that takes a lot of commitment...plus, what would happen if the show ended this season, and all of the hype created by the paratextual content would suddenly stop at a dead-end...or would the paratextual aspects of Lost live on even though the show no longer exists. I'm sure that viewers of shows like Firefly were the reason that Whedon made the movie Serenity when Firefly was canceled suddenly without any plot resolutions. Will the creators of Lost be compelled to make a movie out of the show as well? I hope not. I'm thinking about going to the University of Hawaii for grad school, so it would be better for me if the show were still in production. Maybe I can get a cameo...

Added thoughts to Car crash scenario.

I've been thinking about the section of White Noise I quoted last week and how truly American a car crash really is, if only for the reason that our culture is inextricably tied to cars. The character named Murray says "I see these car crashes as part of a long tradition of American optimism." This is true in that the car itself is what embodies American optimism, not the crash. The production of the car and the invention of the assembly line was what propelled the Industrial Age into the twentieth century, so why shouldn't we as Americans admire anything that has to do with cars (manufacturing and the money it brings) even if it is in the form of a crash.
So, with video games, what is the most spectacular part of the game; not the race, but the crash. And every racing game to come on the market has boasted bigger, better, and more realistic crash scenes than ever before. From my own experience I'd have to say that Burn Out is a game that is fun to play even when I crash, which I do often, because the cinematic quality of these scenes really does deserve the adjective 'spectacular'. The car looks like it's been hit by a semi, but it stays in the race, it never gives up...it continues on that "long tradition of American optimism."

Quote from "Cybertext" by Aarseth

This quote from the introduction to "Cybertext" got me thinking about racing games. Aarseth says:

"A reader, however strongly engaged in the unfolding of a narrative, is powerless. Like a spectator at a soccer game, he may speculate, conjecture, extrapolate, even shout abuse, but he is not a player. Like a passenger on a train, he can study and interpret the shifting landscape, he may rest his eyes wherever he pleases, even release the emergency brake and step off, but he is not free to move the tracks in a different direction. He cannot have the player's pleasure of influence: "Let's see what happens when I do this." The reader's pleasure is the pleasure of the voyeur. Safe, but impotent" (Cybertext, 4).

When a player plays a racing game, he/she has a direct influence over a vehicle, and the plot is decided by the player as well; whether or not he/she wins the game is dependent on the actions the player takes during the race. Someone can be a spectator at a race track and enjoy watching the cars wizz past, but for the gamer, the experience is entirely different because he/she is now the one who is doing all the wizzing. :) A simmulated game, like racing games, are different from adventure games or puzzle games because there is no one final outcome. Every racer plays differently, some never make it to first place, but usually all adventure gamers make it to the final boss. The story may change in an adventure game, but the plot is always the same. However, in racing games, and other sims, there is no plot but what the gamer sets for himself, that is, whether or not he wants to finish first on every track, or just play with friends and not keep score. So, if as Aarseth says, that the reader's pleasure is safe but impotent, and adventure games and MUDs are the potent opposite of a text, then...sims should be the most potent of all? I'll try to make more sense out of this thought later.

What is a car crash?

This passage from "White Noise" by Don DeLillo is about car crashes. Because Dan and Betty and I are working on racing games, I thought that this passage might shed some light on why we enjoy the spectacle of a car crash.

"How is your car crash seminar progressing?"
"We've looked at hundreds of crash sequences. Cars with cars. Cars with trucks. Trucks with busses. Motorcycles with cars. Cars with helicopters. Trucks with trucks. My students think these movies are prophetic. They mark the suicide wish of technology. The drive to suicide, the hurtling rush to suicide."
"What do you say to them?"
"These are mainly B-movies, TV movies, rural drive-in movies. I tell my students not to look for apocalypse in such places. I see these car crashes as part of a long tradition of American optimism. They are positive events, full of the old 'can-do' spirit. Each car crash is meant to be better than the last. There is a constant upgrading of tools and skills, a meeting of challenges. A director says, 'I need this flatbed truck to do a midair double somersault that produces an orange ball of fire with a thirty-six-foot diameter, which the cinematographer will use to light the scene.' I tell my students if they want to bring technology into it, they have to take this into account, this tendency towards grandiose deeds, toward pursuing a dream."
"A dream? How do your students reply?"
"Just the way you did. 'A dream?' All that blood and glass, that screeching rubber. What about the sheer waste, the sense of a civilization in a state of decay?"
"What about it?" I said.
"I tell them it's not decay they are seeing but innocence. The movie breaks away from complicated human passions to show us something elemental, something fiery and loud and head-on. It's a conservative wish-fulfillment, a yearning for naivete. We want to be artless again. We want to reverse the flow of experience, of worldliness and its responsibilities. My students say, 'Look at the crushed bodies, the severed limbs. What kind of innocence is this?' "
"What do you say to that?"
"I tell them they can't think of a car crash in a movie as a violent act. It's a celebration. A reaffirmation of traditional values and beliefs. I connect car crashes to holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth. We don't mourn the dead or rejoice in miracles. These are days of secular optimism, of self-celebration. We will improve, prosper, perfect ourselves. Watch any car crash in any American movie. It is a high-spirited moment like old-fashioned stunt flying, walking on wings. The people who stage these crashes are able to capture a lightheartedness, a carefree enjoyment that car crashes in foreign movies can never approach."
"Look past the violence."
"Exactly. Look past the violence, Jack. There is a wonderful brimming spirit of innocence and fun."

Heartless, but I can see the truth in it.

Paratextuality

This is a response to Dr. Jones' question regarding paratexts and how it influences our game play.

Personally, I have always relied on help from my peers (and occasionally my mother) for help in choosing a game, learning how to play the game, getting help when I'm stuck...I wouldn't play video games at all if I couldn't play them with someone or know someone I could call on. Some of the most lively conversations I've had were about a a video game. Commiseration is always a good way to bring people together.

Even if you're a lone gamer, you still feel compeled to tell somebody about how you finally beat that one boss, and how awesome it felt when he keeled over and died. The lone gamer knows that nobody else cares, but the experience just wouldn't be worth as much if it were not shared.

Wednesday Night's Play Group

Our first gaming session was held last night, and it was a lot of fun. Betty, Dan, and I played a few games on Dan's XBox360: Burnout, Crash Bandicoot, and Table Tennis. I think that we all enjoyed playing Burnout. I love racing games in general, your attention is always fixed on the game. In RPGs there is a tendency for gamers to walk away from the game for a while to get a clearer perspective on their tricky situation, but with racing it isn't possible to distance yourself from the events taking place on screen. In fact, the gamer is drawn into a racing game more so than if it were an RPG, or even a dreaded MMO (and we all know how fixated MMOers can get).
The gamer is sucked into the hand-eye coordinated action of playing a racing game, it envelopes them. They don't notice that their tongues are sticking out of their mouths and slightly to the right, and they aren't aware of their commentary as they narrowly miss a head-on collision. Have you ever been in a situation where you're in a friend's car and while the two of you are having a conversation the driver suddenly says something crude and out of context? Well, I know that when I'm racing I make noises, grunts, and I suck air in through clenched teeth for long intervals of time.
A racing game is really the only kind of game that absorbs my attention completely. I get excited when I race because there isn't just a goal, there is a time constraint and other rivals that I have to beat. It isn't good enough that I made it to the end, it has to be before everyone else does. Some friends of mine back in high school would get together for gaming parties, but it wasn't the friendly atmosphere you would imagine. They each brought a TV and a gaming console to one guy's house and set up FF7. Then they would all load the game at the same time, and race to see who was the one that finished first. FF7 is a game that could last for well over 50 hours if you wanted to unlock everything, but my friends had done all that, they knew all of the game's little secrets. The real challenge lay in who knew it the best, and therefore, who finished first. The same thing goes for racing games. If you know every inch of the track, then you are the one who will finish first.
But besides the social context of gaming, I truly enjoyed Burnout. It handled well, the tracks were interesting but not too distracting. The more you play the more cars you can unlock, and the details on these cars are amazing. The crash scenes look real, and in this game you're actually encouraged to crash because it increases your level of boost power. Also, if you get into a big crash, the restart time isn't as delayed as it is in other racing games; you're back on the track within five seconds.
We also played Crash Bandicoot racing and that was definitely harder. You were racing toward a goal but you could also use boxes that unlocked helpful tools for either offensive or defensive use. Now the point isn't that you need to know the track well in order to gain an advantage, rather you need to know how to distract your rivals by throwing bombs and banana peels.
The last game we played was purely for fun: Table Tennis. It brought me back to my Mortal Kombat days of button mashing madness. I had no idea how to hit the ping pong ball, but I somehow succeeded in beating both Betty and Dan. I rule.

This is my blog space for English 390, Video Games and Textual Studies.