Ludic Dreams

Call this ego stroking, whatever. I just want this chronicled. I had to write a paper for a class, and came up with this gem, reffering to computers. It instantly made me think of some recent endeavors of mine (regarding Chalk and their related warriors) and, in true procrastinator fashion, sparked a tangent of inspiration:

“[the computer] is a changeable tool, equal parts pen, hammer, shovel, and knife.”

I love inspiration.

Ooh! Digg has some cool news….

I saw something that actually almost made me cry, it moved me so much.

Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man and physicist; he is the ultimate in overcoming obstacles. When he was stricken with ALS, rather than stop his work in the field of physics, he simply learned to calculate all of it in his head. He prophesied and hypothesized black holes before the hubble cast it’s gaze upon the sky, and he has become a force of einstein-like proportions.

Yesterday, Dr. Hawking went up ( with famed game designer Richard Garriot) to the Nasa Vomit Comet, where Stephen would be able to feel zero G- keep in mind, this man has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life. He asked to go up with an apple- a piece of science, a relic of newton, and interesting, a discordian artifact.

I am moved by Dr. Hawking, and I am thrilled he could experience this. Good for you, Steve.

-AFK

I do, on occasion, remember this is a blog, and I am supposed to give some sort of relevant thought to the world, not my usual diatribe about “some stuff that happened earlier.” Today has sparked something that is absolutely worth talking about: Ken Kutaragi, Father of the Playstation, has stepped down from Sony.

Let me make something clear; I do not like Sony. People know this. I consider them an old relic on the hide of gaming, sold by the odd and bought by the blind. Their part in this industry is not lost to me. I consider Sony to be a flare gun- an all-important vessel that was used, shined with beauty and grace, and then sank back to earth. In fact, there is a George Carlin joke that I believe best describes my feelings towards them; Namely, he said that the only reason earth allowed us to survive was to get plastic, and now, plastic is here and earth will just kill us off. Sony was the people here, the industry was the earth. Plastic? It was societies acceptance of gaming, making it “Cool, Hip”, to the point where it was not a lame, geeky thing to do.

I should also make something clear; I will not be entertaining any notions of him being forcefully removed from sony behind the scenes. This man was known for running off his mouth, making an ass of himself and his company. Just earlier in the year he was moved off of the Playstation brand entirely, moved on to another project- a move many said was to shut him up.

I am not going to talk about that. What I am going to say will make people mad, but it is a simple, and honest discussion, in regards to what is being said about the man now.

They are calling him the Godfather of Modern Gaming.

This is a man who developed with Nintendo in secret untill he was found, and almost fired. He was a man who took the plans for the Play Station, developed under nintendo, and re-mixed it into the beige console that broke out in the n64 age. He is an engineer, not an artist; Calling him the godfather of modern gaming would be like saying that Da vinci’s pride lies in the man who supplied the copper; Picasso’s true muse would be the man that gave him a canvas.

That is what these consoles are: they are multi-layered canvas’s, they are a tabula rasa for the artist. It is here where my loyalties lie- when I argue for the wii, or the xbox, I am arguing that it gives the artist more space to create, that the canvas holds more possibilities for creation, not that it simply will make the art look prettier.

Name me a piece of art that Kutaragi has produced; name me his finest work. Name me his piece that has caused a tear, name me his boldest character. Name me these things and I will re-think my assumption. But until that day, Kutaragi is no artist, and is not the Godfather of Modern gaming. That title belongs to an artist, and not an engineer.

-A F K

Tomorrow is the 22nd of April, and it is a very special day, for many reasons. The big one is that there is a game coming out tomorrow. It’s a very special game. It’s one, you could say, that focuses on what made me who I am. It’s funny to think that I can somehow boil down a current life to a moment, a single turning point where some divine intervention takes an otherwise normal life and makes it decisively nerdy. In fact, the following post is something of an autobiography, so feel free to be indifferent.

I was sitting on the couch, minding my own damn business, as an 11 year old, waiting to enter ( dun dun dun!!!!) middle school. My hobbies included playing video games ( I had fallen behind the times, I just had an NES and an old genesis with the 32X-word up!), drawing, and thinking up stories. My father, who worked at A+P corporate, was a little miffed. His expertise is at frozen foods, but alas, there was no openings, so he takes a job in cereals.
My father walks in with a clear white cereal box. As he works in cereals, he will often get experimental, unreleased breakfast food stuffs to try out on the family. This one is based on some fad in japan, and comes with a toy he knows I’ll like. It is a little creature that has a zipper- you can fold it inside and out to change from Small, yellow beast to a dual colored ball. he said it was Po-key-man. After a few friends told me about the resulting show, I was hooked.
One Christmas, at my last grandparents house, there is the usual set of gifts- three identically wrapped presents. I opened one, and my young heart shit a proverbial brick.

It was Pokemon: Blue For the gameboy.

I didn’t own a gameboy.

My eyes crept to the remaining to. I feverishly grabbed the second, seemingly identical box, and lo and behold: Pokemon:Red.

The last box stood as an idol before me, and I practiced my first tantric excersize as I waited, reading both game manuals ( the fresh smell and cheaply produced pages still sharp in my mind). Finally, I approached the last box, Knowing that error was not outside of the scope….

20 minutes later, there was simply no Christmas. My family? No longer there, not visible. Instead, they where replaced by a colorized screen, and a world of creatures that where mine to capture.

The story after this is mandatory; playing this game fostered my love of games, eventually spurring the purchase of an N64 and enforcing a homegrown love for nintendo. it created a real connection where there wasn’t one; games where no longer static to me, they sprung alive in these pixels that I cared for, loved, to an extent.
I fell in love with the the card game based around the franchise, and while it served to introduce me to more things of geekdom ( including introducing me to local gaming Haunts, OMNI and the dragons lair) it also had one very interesting side effect- at one so-called “Pokemon league”, I met a girl who I would later date for four years, still going strong.
Playing the games in public made me battle-hardened to the wisecracks of schoolchildren, and also bonded me to other poke-peers, kids who would grow to be the coolest mother fuckers I have ever known, along with people who where similar in personality. This also made me less caring about my reputation, and more risky, perhaps leading to my adrenaline junkie lifestyle.

At 10:30 EST April 22nd, I will be Purchasing Pokemon: Pearl for my Nintendo DS, and Pokemon:Diamond for my Girlfriend. I have told people this, and I have given excuses such as buying it out of nostalgia, a joke for a friend, etc. But y’know what? Fuck that.

At 10:30 EST, April 22nd, I will be be purchasing Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for my girlfriend and I. I will be reentering a world where my current seeds where sown, and I will be having the time of my life. I have waited for this game for a long time, and I will play it as much as I can, if not for me, then for a simple tagline;

I gotta catch ‘em all.

Thank you, Poke’mon.

-A F K

Super paper mario is a treat.

For one, there is literally no forth wall- when you flip the world from side-scroller to 3d ( which i believe could be expanded in a different way, perhaps to teach children about spatial relationships? I would definitely recommend this to parents), there is no ‘wall’ where the player is. It is a black void. But even better? Shiggy does it again- he makes me laugh out loud.

You see, it is a common convention in games when a character learns a new ability, he is described this ability twice. Once, it is ” in-game” terms. I.e, in SPM, they describe that you can magically flip the world . Then, the player is described the ability in “game” terms–i.e., Press A to flip world. In SPM, every time this is explained, mario expresses his confusion, and the NPC says “Don’t worry. Someone out there knows what I am talking about and understands completely.

I believe this speaks to the entire nature of the game. It is a dialectic; it is laid back, yet challenging. It is a mature storyline ( very much end-of-the-world, kill all humans type stuff) but it is kept far away from the emo-ZOMG storylines of many a final fantasy game. Also, we see peach as a playable character- not in the passive, as in most other games, or as the emotionally driven feminine with talking accessories, but as a strong, female character. Sure, her power still revolves around a parasol. However, the princess is resolute – it was her capturing that caused this, and she is going to fix it. I am glad to see this maturation of the character, and would love to see more of this in the future.

Paper mario, at first glance so many years ago, confused me. Mario RPG? Doesn’t seem very palpable. However, the game has proved itself many times. This newest incarnation is probably the best; and I think it is well on it’s way to top ten status.

-A F K

I guess you could say I am trying to find my way in the blogosphere. This will probably not be the only new theme I try over the course of a few days. I am trying to look slightly more proffesional, perhaps get noticed? Maybe? no? Okay.

Also; Twitter is at least, at first count, 4 kinds of awesome. You’ll see my twitter feed on the sidebar.

- A F K