Category Archives: Babycastles

WELL HELLO!

Had this boyfriend once I lived with who played a concerning number of Dragonball Z video games — you know, the hybrid fighting/RPG ones. I mean, not that I didn’t watch them. Like, a lot, to where whenever I am writing a new blog post, or whenever I’m talking to folks I haven’t seen in a long time, I have this urge to go, ‘WELL HELLO!’ in the voice of Launch.

She was running the shop in one of those games… I think it was Budokai Tenkaichi 3… or maybe it was like, some equipment upgrade station… dang man, I dunno. But when you went in she was all WELL HELLO, and so, yeah. Cred points if any commenters can find a clip of that voice audio for me.

(UPDATE: Here is is! Thank you, OffalAl, for making this for us!)

So. Well, hello — sorry I’ve been MIA from SVGL a little bit, but I’ve taken on some longer-term articles (which, like fruit, will bear slowly, stay tuned!) and had my hands full, and when I’m not doing that, I’ve been traveling. I’m coming to you live from midnight on Cape Cod, where my parents live.

I was raised here in MA, where summer meant Atlantic Ocean, the cold salted stone that borders it, and all of the shellfish that were dashed on its shores. This time of year, I love to visit whenever I’ve got time; this weekend we visited the Edward Gorey House, swam on a private beach in Yarmouth, ate lobster (favorite food, if I had to pick) — working vacation, I suppose.

Personal junk aside, the last time we talked, I had been getting ready to stage the Bad Bitches exhibit’s opening at Babycastles’ Williamsburg locale, and I am happy to report it went lovely. Motherboard covered the proceedings here, and at Kotaku this month, I used my column to address some of the response to the exhibit and, loosely, the reasons I wanted to stage it.

Related to challenging norms, Brandon Sheffield talks to BioWare Montreal’s Manveer Heir (friend of mine; I’m sometimes called “Womanveer”) about diversity in game characters, I talk to Metanet’s brilliant Mare Sheppard about Toronto’s Difference Engine Initiative, and interview Starhawk‘s senior producer at Sony on inclusiveness.

Finally, my bro Kirk Hamilton (who works at Big K now, whoa) writes on the “Mass Effect beauty pageant” that took place to much controversy on Facebook. As a mixed race woman with pretty non-traditional features I can identify with folks who are tired of media ideals that don’t look like them, but how I feel about Blonde FemShep is two things: One, lovely blonde women have probably had enough of being told they can’t possibly be smart or admirable, so piss off; and two, please stop saying “FemShep.” It drives me crazy.

Or, like, I guess, go ahead. I’m pretty not-into Mass Effect, so you guys have fun. I presume most of you guys like Mass Effect for the same reasons I like Twilight: trope-heavy pair bonding in the environment of beloved fantasy cliches where it’s fun to laugh at yourself, or, at the very least, to laugh at yourself while secretly being kind of serious about it. Pair bonding is quintessential. I wrote about it here.

Preceding article has nothing to do with video games, bee-tee-dubs. You know how important I think it is that we enjoy things that have nothing to do with video games. Like music! So if you’re on Spotify, please add this 1990S MUSIC PLAYLIST, entitled “liquid television,” an enormous 11-hour trip back to an era when flannel wasn’t ironic. You’re welcome.

[Today’s Good Song: Broken Water, ‘Peripheral Star‘]

Quick Bits

Long time no see! Yes, blah blah I’m busy, you know the drill. I finished playing Catherine (I liked it) and I am finishing up Ocarina and I wrote this little love-letter to young Link. SO CUTE.

I also curated an exhibit themed around alt-sexuality games at Babycastles in Williamsburg, and the opening party was ah-mazing. Here’s the event page, and there are Flickr galleries by attendees posted on the wall if you want to see a little of what it was like. I was so excited about how well-attended it was, and what meant most of all to me is that everyone was interested in and curious about the games, their creators and what it was like to play them. I lost my voice from giving so many little tours of the cabinets.

Now for some bad news: Silent Barn, Babycastles’ first home in Ridgewood, Queens, has been burglarized. Not only is it the home of my friends, it’s an important art and show space for our neighborhood and for New York City in general. Audio gear was stolen and people’s creations were destroyed, which is a horrible thing to have happen to people who literally live their lives to create a community for artists. Please stay tuned — if there’s anything we can do to help them recover I’d like us to try, because they’re the kind of folks who deserve our caring, even if it’s just to keep them in our thoughts and send good karma.

[UPDATE: Kickstarter to relaunch the space. Please consider helping!]

Other stuff as I try to catch up with you guys: Awesome Madoka pixel art video; Anamanaguchi remixes Ra Ra Riot. More soon.

Indie Games Take Manhattan (With Your Help)

I’ve talked to you a bit before about Babycastles, the arcade some friends of mine are founding in a local community space here in New York City. It’s meant to be a tangible showcase and play space for independent games, the kind a wider audience wouldn’t necessarily encounter on their own. How great for indies, how great for games!

What’s more is the founders want to take what they’ve begun with indie spirit out here in the DIY scene and build a bigger fancier indie arcade IN TIMES SQUARE. Imagine! A mecca for hands-on indie gaming in the culture capital of America! This is something I think all who love games might be interested in supporting.

Babycastles needs funds, though. You guys were so supportive of Kill Screen when I told you about it, and SVGLers helped very much in the fundraising effort — this is the same kind of idea, a spiritual alternative to what already exists that will be good for the gaming space on the whole.

Every little dollar helps, but the Babycastles team has put together a ton of awesome incentive packages, too (apparently they have added a pixelblock rendering of me to the available bonuses?!). Please check it out and consider making even a small donation in support of a great cause — we’ve only got a couple of weeks left!

(Wanna know what it’s like? Check the article I wrote — in the process of researching it, I learned I wanted to do everything I could to help).

Squeaky Clean

Dear ‘gamers’ — I’m surprised at you. You have been showing up here at Sexy Videogameland to swoon over Catherine trailers; you pile on my Formspring to ask me about my nerdy Metal Gear Solid theories (when you are not asking me creepy questions about my sex life and/or shoe size). If you are really cool, you’ve tossed a couple bucks the way of Babycastles, because you believe that the work of indie designers should have a home in New York City. To be a part of something special! For the future! For your children! Or because you want a copy of We Love Katamari autographed by Keita Takahashi, whatever.

You don’t just enjoy video games; you love them and you live them. Maybe you grew up with them, like I did, as described in my current series at Thought Catalog (now up to Part Two! Part One is here.) But when I told you about how developers tell me some game publishers overuse focus testing to rationalize developing only formula-driven, risk-averse status quo video games, (thus stifling creativity and making innovation scarce) so many of you shrugged breezily and told me, “it’s just a business.”

It’s naive and idealistic to think that games are more than simple consumer products and that there’s more potential in the medium than its ability to make tons of money. So lemme be naive and idealistic — I’m the one that has to get up in front of everyone and yak about it, so you guys can nod along or not.

So, uh… why aren’t you all nodding along? Are games just consumer products to you, like soap or something? At Kotaku this month, I examine the schism between our experiential, artistic and emotional fondness for games and the biz-driven “product” identity games have carried since the 1980′s when they were sold as novelties beside VCRs and music players. Check it out!

Fun ‘insider info’– while editing my column Stephen Totilo and I took bets on how long it would take someone to post a picture of Soap McTavish. Guess how long it took.

Wii remote soap in the image was found here, along with some other pictures of crazy/awesome video game soap. The new banner was a present from Matthew Carstensen, who has a pretty interesting blog.

Today’s good song is the chip-ish and flipping excellent cover of Japandroids’ Wet Hair done by Teen Daze. I’m posting it here rather than tucking it away in brackets because it has a game-like sound you guys might like. This looks like a fan-made video done, appropriately, to animations from the Scott Pilgrim video game.

And while I am slamming amazing things into your faces, let me remind you that you pretty much have to get the soundtrack to that game. Duh, Anamanaguchi.

Remember when I did an interview article on them circa 2k9? Think I said they ‘might break through’. Think I was ‘totally right’.

Dear ‘gamers’ — I’m surprised at you. You have been showing up here at Sexy Videogameland to swoon over Catherine trailers; you pile on my Formspring to ask me about my nerdy Metal Gear Solid theories (when you are not asking me creepy questions about my sex life and/or shoe size). If you are really cool, you’ve tossed a couple bucks the way of Babycastles, because you believe that the work of indie designers should have a home in New York City. To be a part of something special! For the future! For your children! Or because you want a copy of Katamari Damacy autographed by Keita Takahashi, whatever.

You don’t just enjoy video games; you love them and you live them. Maybe you grew up with them, like I did, as described in my current series at Thought Catalog (now up to Part Two! Part One is here.) But when I told you about how developers tell me some game publishers overuse focus testing to rationalize developing only formula-driven, risk-averse status quo video games, thus stifling their creativity and resulting in an industry where innovation is rare and challenging, so many of you shrugged breezily and told me, “it’s just a business.”

It’s naive and idealistic to think that games are more than simple consumer products and that there’s more potential in the medium than its ability to make tons of money. So lemme me naive and idealistic — I’m the one that has to get up in front of everyone and yak about it, so you guys can nod along or not.

Fun insider image — while editing my column Stephen Totilo and I took bets on how long it would take someone to post a picture of Soap McTavish. Guess.