Category Archives: Facebook

Scoring Sentimentality

When it comes to entertainment media, I generally think objectivity is a ridiculous notion. We can accept this in most kinds of art — i.e, “I don’t like this” is not thought to be analogous to “this isn’t good.” We can like things that are bad, and we can feel alienated or repelled by things that are well-crafted if they’re not our taste.

It seems more difficult for gamers to accept this, and by “gamers” I mean the kind that are “hardcore” enough to be overly invested in what other people think of something they like. I maintain that probably the biggest reason people read reviews is not “to find out if a game is good,” but to help them crystallize their own opinion — or to make them feel validated in that opinion.
But there’s still the assumption that a review can be generally correct or not, vs. something one agrees or disagrees with; certainly it doesn’t help that as a technology product there are aspects of a game that are governed by quality rules, that have a right and a wrong way they can be executed.
I hate that. I think for the most part the most interesting work in gaming culture gets done when we let go of this distant idea of games as only product; they are so personal, so subjective, so experiential.
There are people out there who think that Ocarina of Time is the greatest video game ever made. It isn’t[*], but I know why a lot of people think so. Read the latest of my Edge columns to come online and see what I mean.
Speaking of products and reviews and stuff, I had a thought-provoking question posed to me the other day, and it spawned an entire editorial: Why doesn’t the games press review Facebook games? Would having them on Metacritic or something offer a useful baseline for the space so that it can actually evolve?
All I’m doing right now is replaying MGS 3 in HD. Yep, still my favorite video game.

*”Ocarina of Time is the greatest ocarina-themed videogame of all time.” — Ian Bogost

Live From Hurricane Irene



Hi everybody — sadly, I’m not at PAX like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY GAMING FRIENDS. I’m coming to you live from a “Zone B Hurricane Bunker” at the border of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The picture you see above you depicts the eerie cast the sky here had yesterday evening, before the inclement weather descended.

…Not an actual bunker. I’m just at home at 3:40 AM watching all-night Irene reports with my cats, Zelda and Yorda. I only had enough duct tape for one window, so I’m going to try not to exhaust my flashlight battery by using the light to play with the cats, who seem entirely unconcerned.
Actually, there’s not much to be concerned about just yet; so far there’s just been an intense amount of rain, since the brunt of the hurricane won’t hit for a few more hours yet. I’m pretty safe where I am, but I’m kind of a disaster fetishist — check out my Thought Catalog piece on thoughts about the hurricane.
Since the last time I’ve updated, kind of a lot has happened; I went to MA to visit some video game developers (and my parents!), so here’s interview 1, 2 and 3 from my trip to Irrational. The main reason I went to MA will soon be unveiled!
I’ve done a couple of editorials at Gamasutra, too. I’m ambivalent in the truest sense of the word about the extent to which I’ve been sucked into Facebook games. Initially I meant to do some research for my monthly Edge column — by the way, the current print issue features a piece I wrote on what I perceive to be a disconnect between games critics and the average players, and thanks to those of you who’ve shot some feedback my way on Twitter about that.
But anyway, yeah, I decided to play some Facebook games, and gradually my wall and my notifications list are being overtaken by game spam. It’s driving me crazy, and yet I’m still logging into the stupid things every day. I had thought The Sims Social might be a little different, or a little smarter, but it’s kind of the worst offender yet. You can read my Gamasutra analysis for details.
If you are of an industry mind, I’ve got a couple of things for you: Fellow Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris feels the “revolving door”, in his words, of executives at Atari is concerning, and I spoke to the company’s latest mobile and digital executive hires about their hopes for the future of the venerated brand. Second, what’s former Microsoft Games Studios VP Shane Kim doing these days? You got questions, I got answers!
Some of y’all might be playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but of my favorite things I’m doing these days is continuing my letter series with my pal Kirk Hamilton (fairly-newly of Kotaku staff!) about the original Deus Ex. I assume all core PC gamers will have a coronary when I say my persistent impression of it is “eh, it’s not Metal Gear Solid.” But if you pay even a little attention to this blog, you know I’m almost irrationally fangirlish in regards to MGS, so hopefully you can forgive me.
More seriously, I get why everyone loved Deus Ex so much. It’s so, so smart, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. If you aren’t up-ons, please enjoy The Deus Ex letters part one, two and three.
When Kirk and I did The FF7 Letters at Paste, one of the conclusions at which we mutually arrived is that sometimes stylization is more immersive than what’s passing for “realism” these days. Now that it’s au courant to do remakes, HD re-releases and the like of beloved games, I’ve thought about how pushing for lifelike graphics and “realism” can actually make some games ultimately alienating because they don’t age well.
If you happen to be a NYLON Guys subscriber, or to see one on the newsstand, please take a look — I edit the games section, and have kinda quietly been doing so for the better part of 2011. I just finished assembling NYLON Guys’ October/November issue. Uh… did you realize how many major, major games are coming out around then? Here’s a fun game: Count how many of them are third in their series.
I went to Capcom’s Fight Club in New York, where I hung with Hip Hop Gamer and saw ladies dressed as Phoenix and Felicia. Vs. Tekken plays so, so well, for someone like me who’s hardly hardcore about fighters. People take fighting games quite seriously, you realize. There was a line around the block to attend the event; a pair of limo drivers on the next corner asked me what all of those men were waiting for. Because it was in the Chelsea neighborhood, they thought it was a gay lifestyle event and approached me to find out what a woman could possibly be doing there. Wince.
Next week, I’ll be at Call of Duty XP. I’ve never been to such a large-scale event around a single franchise. It should be exciting. Shout out if you’re going too, and say hi if you see me! You know the world of the FPS isn’t my natural habitat, so I’ve no idea what to expect.
You can imagine I’m a little tired. I’m half-hoping the power goes out this weekend so I can tell everybody I owe Monday deadlines to that I simply couldn’t. Maybe I shouldn’t say that in public. Oops.

Finally, thanks to Allan Offal for making an MP3 of DBZ’s Launch saying “WELL HELLO“, as I’d hoped someone would in my last post.

[Today’s Good Song: ‘Marquee Moon,’ Television (my fave storm jam!)]

Squee Mode


In a predictable state of affairs, writer Leigh Alexander swathed her entire blog in a romantic Persona 3 Portable theme, tweeted on numerous occasions about how she failed to sleep due to Persona 3 Portable, changed her desktop wallpaper from MGS3‘s final boss scene to the above image, and then stopped blogging for two weeks. Guess what she has been doing all this time.

Actually, while I have been playing a lot of Persona 3 Portable, I’ve mainly been writing a lot, once again developing bunches of stories that I can’t wait to share with you as they materialize. Lately, though, I’ve been talking to a lot of developers about the high-stress environment of the game industry. Lots of people get into game writing because they hope to “cross over” — that’s never been me. I feel like there’s nothing that could make me want to work on the other side; let’s pretend I actually did have any game design skills, which I certainly don’t. Writing for the trade I’ve learned something big: I don’t envy them, to say the least!

And having been in games writing for a while now, there are a lot of times, to be honest, that I’m terribly stressed out, too, by the challenges of covering such a specific business — and by the culture of the audience, and I know I’m not alone. And if the audience is capable of causing me so much fatigue and disillusionment sometimes, it makes me wonder what’s wrong with them, too.

I wrote Who Cheers For War last month at Kotaku because I’ve been curious about digging into the darkness I often observe in our hobby — there’s no other way of putting it. Sometimes it even feels like illness. The often unspoken pains that all three spokes of this wheel (devs, media and audience) endure was something I think it’s important to continue to call attention to and examine, and I did this at Gamasutra late last week. Please do check it out and discuss if you missed it. The discussion thread on it has grown epic.

Today at Kotaku, an article about — surprise! — Persona 3 Portable. In my last post I said I hoped to write more about how playing as a female feels different this time around, and I had the opportunity to do that in this month’s feature column. For reference, here’s how it felt for me the first time around, from the archives of my old Aberrant Gamer haunt.

You heard yesterday that GameStop bought Kongregate — Kongregate’s founder, Jim Greer, an industry veteran with whom I’ve had several conversations that make me feel he cares very much about developers, would like you to think twice before applying the “home for indies sells out” narrative to this one, or that’s the message I got from my interview with both companies about the deal.

In other acquisition news, Disney spends quite a sum on third-place Facebook game developer Playdom, and one analyst thinks it’s an over-spend with unclear ROI potential (how’s that Club Penguin thing working out now, I’d like to know?). The contentious environment around social game investments, players and developers, is certainly becoming increasingly fricative, and nothing’s made this clearer than the polarizing response to Ian Bogost’s commentary game, Cow Clicker. For now, check out the heated discussion on his blog about it, and stay tuned for an in-depth follow up from me at Gamasutra coming soon. The whole issue’s fascinating, to say the least.

Speaking of social media, you will notice Blogger has kindly added buttons to allow you to tweet, FB, email and Buzz my posts directly whenever you like. Go for it!

So, also StarCraft II is, uh… something that is happening… it is a game for your computer, a lot of people are playing it, I.. yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about StarCraft. Blind spot. Sorry bros. Are you into it? Lemme know in the new SVGL poll on the sidebar!

The last poll, by the way, showed that the majority of you, at 58%, are not interested in new motion control solutions. 21 percent of you are interested in PlayStation Move, 16 percent prefer Kinect, and only 4 percent of you would like to have both interfaces in your living room. Innnnnnnnteresting! I’ll have to ask you again after launch, when more titles are available…

[‘Today’s Good Song’ is actually an awesome music video! Check out Cosmetics’ ‘Soft Skin‘.]

The Real World

You can change your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook portraits back to your real face if you had a Second Life portrait up. I mean, seriously, please do, because when you use an avatar picture as if you were an in-world character instead of a real human being, it looks weird. Especially ’cause that whole thing is kinda over.

Sincerely, hey, y’know, whatever you’re into, I don’t judge (see my Formspring anonymous question repository, where someone asked me if playing Bayonetta naked is wrong). But the big virtual worlds boom seems like it’s all but done to me — y’know, kind of like what I thought might happen in an environment driven by ideals that were a little bit too eager to throw out established best practices and declare gaming, online social behavior and the web itself “over”.
When I spoke at Worlds in Motion cautioning excited virtual worlds gold-rushers not to get too lost in a fantasy of actualizing Snow Crash and to pay a little more attention to the way users were already doing things I fielded an impassioned argument from someone who basically said I was wrong. That person made their living selling virtual something-or-other in Second Life. I wonder how their business is doing these days.
Anyway, back then, the loudest voices in favor of the new paradigm’s triumph were those who had already had tons and tons of the Kool Aid (and who had put millions and millions of dollars behind the ideas). It kind of reminds me of the echo chamber around Facebook gaming right now. Don’t get me wrong — I think Facebook gaming is a lot more relevant and viable than the “3D Web” and “virtual life” fantasy ever were, and I think Twitter really has changed the world forever, but there’s definitely something of a bubble forming.
I reflect on this bubble in my latest editorial at Gamasutra. The virtual worlds craze wasn’t entirely wasted time, of course — I parse out the permanent lessons that we learned and the way we’ve incorporated them into new media, too. Caution and pragmatism, entrepreneurs!