Leigh Alexander » fucking awesome

Squeaky Clean

Leigh Alexander — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:39:00 +0000

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’.

Leigh Alexander — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:26:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.’