I have a good friend, a game designer of 20 years who often tells the anecdote, “I tell my mother I’m a crack dealer so she’ll understand because it seems so much more understandable and respectable than saying I make games for a living.” In a previous blog entry I stated the following: Computers have always been a part of my life. I've been working with gaming support sites for 7 years; I've been in the Games Press for five. My mom said to me, "now that you're into this, what will we have to talk about?" Apparently, I've mutated beyond human.
There’s a legitimacy issue in games.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re aware of it even if you’ve never voiced it to yourself. More than once you’ll have had to justify to someone why it’s important to you that you play a video game for your fun; why you’d rather not go outside on a nice sunny day but sit inside and get to the next level; that really, you’ve learned something from playing games as opposed to killing multiple brain cells.
Movies are a legitimate form of entertainment media. Television is a legitimate form of entertainment media. Books have always been a legitimate form of entertainment media.
Comic books are more than 60 years old. They are not.
But wait?! You can make a movie based on a graphic novel (admit it, it’s a big comic book) and it’s a legitimate form of entertainment media. The original media? Still not legitimate.
In the last three weeks I’ve attended four press events/conferences/seminars or had the opportunity to talk to game developers. And something struck me as odd: more than once they were asking creators of other media to approve their game design.
There’s nothing like sex to get people talking. Even the ones who “hate” it like it. Everyone reading this, who likes it, raise your hand.
…
That pause was me raising mine. It made it hard to type.
This weekend, I spoke about Community Management at the IMGDC. I wasn’t speaking about managing “sexual” communities; though, if you want to get technical, we are all sexual animals. (I looked for the original citation on this – good luck!)
Kelly Rued, of Black Love Interactive, wants to make MMOEGs – Massively Multiplayer Online Erotic Games. Letter Soup. Sex games online. She’s very passionate about her subject, no pun intended. It’s an important subject. And while I don’t necessarily agree with the direction she’s taking to get there, I think she’s got the right idea.
I’m sitting here in the Phoenix Airport waiting for a flight to Minneapolis. This is my weekend to speak to the Indie Devs at the IMGDC about Community Management. Boy, are they in for it. I’m not going to be doing the usual “be polite, be respectful”; I plan to tell them to build tools from the beginning because “it’s a damn service, not just a game!” *sigh*
What I should be doing is catching up on some reviews. I have 3 kid’s DS games I need to review. Some are going on four weeks old.
We work really hard to cover children’s titles on this site. We work even harder to make sure there are children (of the appropriate ages) in the homes where the games are being covered. And you’d think the games would be a slam-dunk to cover. It’s just not the case. With the possible exception of MMOs, they’re the hardest titles to cover.
I have ideas. Some of them come to fruition, some don't. It's like that with most people, I'm sure. But, I do have goals with this site. Someday, they'll become obvious, I hope. I'm working on a completing a long overdue communications degree. But I have obstacles. Yesterday, I found out that I had until midnight last night to produce an essay indicating why I had need, qualifications and would make a difference if someone gave me money.
I considered posting this on my personal blog, but it's relevant to the gaming industry as well. Because, I'm working on this degree not just for personal enrichment, but for this site and for this industry.
Tell me what you think. I'll get back to games, etc soon. Essay after the jump.
Two, maybe three E3s ago I wrote an article on a then upcoming title called Stargate SG-1: The Alliance. The game was cancelled shortly thereafter yet even now, years later, it remains our third most popular article. I opened it with the following words:
Sometimes it seems as if it's the flip of a coin as to whether a title based upon a film/TV show will succeed (more often than not, it's actually quality of the game), but science fiction as a whole has generally survived the translation. Perhaps it's the fantastical storylines, the often beautiful backdrops or, it could be that only those that are truly successful get made into games.
For political/budgetary reasons what appeared to be a promising action title wasn’t made. Yet, the continued popularity of the article would seem to indicate that Stargate holds a certain fascination with gamers – or at least with the readers of this site.
Stargate Worlds (SGW) has been in pre-production for two years and recently entered the production phase. As I write this, the first “playables” should have been delivered. A few miles down the road from my apartment the developers at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME) are stepping through the Gate into what is to be the first translation of a television show into a massively multiplayer game.
Because I live so close to CME, I’ve been privy to the knowledge there was going to be a Stargate MMO long before it was announced to the public. I am, well…I revel in all things Stargate to the point of being a complete nerd. That being said, as much as I look forward to my favorite television universe entering the online realm, I’m wary. I know how difficult it is to translate a movie/book/TV to game and vice versa.
Originally, this article was to be a preview of Stargate Worlds after the Game Developer's Conference. I was holding off because I wanted to place it along with a review of Sony’s Stargate Online: The Trading Card Game and Skyzone Mobile’s title, Stargate SG-1: Entropy. I thought they’d make a nice trilogy for the day. After returning home, pouring over my notes, following up with Cheyenne, playing the other games I realized – I can’t actually preview something I haven’t seen! Ok, that’s a new rule here at GamersInfo.
But, there was also this niggling voice in the back of my head. You see, I’m not “there” yet on the design of the game. I want to be. This is Stargate! And as a gamer and a member of the industry the last thing I want is to see an MMO not meet expectations – every one that doesn’t quite make it hurts the industry as a whole. I grappled with this for a while. A long while.
First, I thought it might be the fanboi issue. But, I do more than write for this site and I’m pretty good about keeping those two parts of me separate. So, I chewed on it; I talked to people who know me and asked if they thought it could be me; I talked to people who know design and (without mentioning the title) asked about the elements that concerned me. Then I chewed some more. What to say?
This entry was posted on LiveJournal in my personal blog in November of last year and was the seed that germinated into the column you are now reading.
I'm in a bit of a conundrum. You see, I eventually plan to move this (this being my personal blog) to Ophelea.com. But I kept saying "I'll get it ready" for about 6 months. And there were these thoughts I kept wanting to get out of my head and as I rarely write on paper anymore I was at a loss as to where to place them. (This is not the conundrum, by the way.)
So, now I have this spot here on LiveJournal, with the Robots that cause the reaction, "Are robots really you?" I have no idea why they cause that reaction...
And I think there's maybe 3 people reading it? Assuming I've told that many...
The conclusion being that if I've told them about it they know me and what I do for a living.
This brings me to the conundrum. I just realized, I have two...conundrums, that is. Ok, the first. Do I write this as if there may be an actual stranger reading this? Or do I assume that only people who know me are? Wow, that would be sad. For now, I'll pretend random people have found these ruminations even though they're all of 5 days old.
The second conundrum and the point of the title is this: I manage a website known as GamersInfo.net. It's up there in the corner on the left (at least in this incarnation of the journal). We do game reviews, interviews, blah blah blah. I've been around games, books, movies - entertainment media for 15 years now. No, 17 years. Christ, I'm old.
Occasionally, or more than occasionally, I have thoughts on trends. For example, this year as I review children's games, I notice after a 2-year campaign of complaining vehemently that an E-rated game doesn't at all indicate whether the game is appropriate for a 6-10 year because children of that age vary GREATLY and who knows whether someone of age 7 can even read yet! Games finally say on the back (in eensy weensy little print) "Game requires basic reading ability to be enjoyed fully"
Score!
I should get to the conundrum.
I'm considering an Editor's Thoughts column on the site. We have several editors and they write well as a whole. And more often than not they have valid ideas.
