netmonkey

If you haven't guessed by now, Violencia is the Spanish (or Castillian) word for violence. I asked Jake the other day if we ever had a topic dedicated to video game violence because everyone is always talking about it, at least since the days of the original DOOM. Sure, Wolfestein was violent and all, but it wasn't popular enough (before DOOM) to deserve all the bitching from people. So, I finally decided to start this topic after I read this article (found on Grumpy Gamer) from The Video Game Ombudsman. It talks about this piece on 60 Minutes, a popular american television show (programme), did about GTA and someone who got inspired to kill some people based on it. From what I've read so far, here are the following things I'm thinking about Some people are stupid, perhaps even people in this forum. They play a game, without any common sense (apparently), and think it's real life. Is it necessary to make all games violent? Let's make sure we differ between action and violence. Donkey Kong has action, but it's not necessarily violent. You just hit Mario but he doesn't stumble down the beams dripping blood; he just spins around and you laugh! Do the things that you do in games give you ideas about real life? I'm sure if you've played Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 you felt like buying a skateboard and sk8ing, but don't expect to do those ultra impossible tricks, specially if you don't have a lightsaber and you're playing the game as darth maul. So, I'll shut up and add some of my thoughts as the thread progresses and grows. Reply!

It's sad how all the winning games are basically violent action games, except for like Hitchhiker's Guide (which was originally developed in the 80s by infocom anyway) and Colin McCrae Rally (a pretty good and serious rally simulator). I'm suprised that Donkey Konga even got the award for the Children's category (funny, the American nintendo comercials show grown ups playing the game... in the dark.) How is Prince of Persia: Shit Allover a GameCube game that deserves the award? I mean, I know that GC had a pretty weak selection without a Zelda this year, but that's just ridiculous.

I don't know if you guys read something about fanbois whining about some gaming interviews for like a girls magazine as well as some thing about how gaming magazine are worthless (I think I got those links from Grumpy Gamer), but I'm wondering if there is anything out there worth buying that you can't get online. I was at the local Hastings (an entertainment superstore) and I was looking at the Game Developer magazine and it had a really interesting article on the gaming market for girls. The most interesting part I read for all the tactics companies should use to expand the market was that they were talking about tennis shoes. Before the 90s hit, sports shoes where mostly targeted at men, but then someone realize that, omg, women also like tennis shoes! so they started marketing the shoes for both men and women and behold... many, if not more, women buy tennis shoes for men (I would say more, because generally women buy more shoes than guys... my sister has like 6 pairs of tennis... and I live life with like 3 pairs of shoes). Anyway, I searched on Gamasutra to see if they had the article online but they didn't, so I guess it's pretty good reason to buy the magazine, specially if you're a decent game maker-wannabe like myself. A $5 for a very thin magazine is not very appealing, though, and the last 10 pages are full of ads. I'll shut up and ask the question out there: What (gaming-related) magazines out there do you find worth buying?

Mario never sells on the following things: 1) The princess has been kidnapped (like every freakin' 5 minutes she is! ) 2) Mario is a plumber on mushrooms 3) He has a brother who looks just like him (you offer them ice cream, they both say yes ) I think by looking at the current bullshitomania, you can't sell the game on story. You have to sell it based on stupidity. (Like project: snowblind's comercial with the borg-like monologue. What the hell is that?! It's on their website as the newest trailer) If psychonauts overall is really good (that is, there is something good beyond the story + character development part + creativity), then that might save it from certain DOOM....

Aw, I really hope it doesn't happen... but chances are that it might become true

I was browsing around, and I ran into these two tv shows that you can download: 1984: http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=computerchronicles&collectionid=121 and 1985: http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=computerchronicles&collectionid=203 I haven't seen the second one but I'm watching the first one and Trip Hawkins, the founder of EA, speaks... anyway, it's interesting to hear how dedicated game designers were back in the day to provide accuracy... they didn't think on market share or shit like that. But since then, EA talks about a sports game... Dr. J and Larry Bird go one-on-one. Trip says that the direction games are going is to have "more creative possibilites for the player which I think where more of the educational value comes from." and "The area where the greatest challenges will come is in looking for new original ideas and creative ways to break the mold. A lot of people look at what other people have done and try to do something that is a spinoff from that, but the real creative geniouses in the industry are capable of coming up with something completely new." Times have changed.

Some adventure games made with Adventure Game Studio, of course! Some classics: Budokan: The Martial Spirit (Made by EA? It must have been a different EA) Battle Chess - Live chess pieces battling to the death. Take that, Chessmaster 42000! Modern Games? Man, I seriously can't think of a game that no one has heard of. I'll keep thinking about it.

European magazines seem to be much better than American magazines. I was looking at a copy of the UK PC Gamer once and it just had a lot more variety of content and information than what PC Gamer ever did, or maybe it was because I wasn't used to the mag's content layout. But over here any Euro mag costs like $10... are they insane?!

Sony's Colossal Tech Demo: The Game

Oh! I always wanted to see those. I looked on Friendster when I first heard of them, but I guess they were taken off by the time Tim talked at the GDC last year.

Well, that was entertaining... specially the part with the explosions... it made a lot of sense to have them!

Hey! someone agrees with me. Sam & Max Hit the Road had good characters and all, but I thought the game was a complete waste of design. I was really having a hard time finding the direction in the game, and a lot of the mechanic was to solve everything in one location, throw it away, and move to the next location.

I didn't know whether to post this on site feedback or here, but I posted here because I bet more people check out this section of the forums. Anyway, I have this idea that when the Idle Thumbs cast goes to the conventions like E3 or the GDC, instead of finding people who make good, old-fashioned, franchise-free games (well, of course you guys can still do that but also: ), you would find people that make these crappy, franchise-driven sequel games and ask them some serious questions on upcoming and released games. And don't worry about breaking those guys into pieces, because some of them really deserve it for not thinking about the concequences of their actions. I guess the true people to talk to are the higher-ups in the companies, but go around and see what you can find... attack any fanboi-looking developer! It would really make Idle Thumbs a good really good site even better than what it is right now (and bring a lot of work for you guys as well, but think of the popularity and the fame!)... there really needs to be a site out there that shows that there exists people who don't give a fuck about pulling these developer's balls around for "El Generico" games.

It's not about quality per se. I was just watching the Oscars and there are still a lot of movies made that are just intended for general audiences. Big studios have even started independent-based distributors to finance and release independent movies too (Fox Searchlight, for example). But the fact is that most of those movies nominated are for all audiences... there is no target audience in particular; you just go to see it because it's supposed to be good. There's little games made in America these days that are for everybody and most are wasted on only targeting the adrenaline-pumped horny male for some odd reason. I guess they do buy the consoles, but some of them have families, too. Maybe they can play together. Oh, and believe it or not, some of them have girlfriends, too! When we were kids, before there was mortal kombat and all, we loved games like mario and sonic! My dad, who was then like 30 years old, would sit on the computer and play the original Prince of Persia. Now days, I doubt he can sit on the computer or my xbox and play any game that he likes, including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (although it's pretty good for my liking and it's indeed produced by the same guy... Jordan Mechner?), or any less POP:Christian Rock Within, because they don't appeal to him.

Halo 2 (or Halo with 2 Guns) and DOOM 3 (aka John Carmack's penis-in-hand Tech Demo)

Yes! That's exactly what I want you to do... But actually, what I was thinking about was that you would magically get exclusive interviews with people like the POP:WW Art Director and stuff like that, and if you did ask them some intelligent questions. If they answer something kind of dumb, then ask them why they say that. But that would mean that you wouldn't necessarily come script-prepared for an interview, and it would be more of a debate... The point was that I don't know what your plans are, but I was suggesting for you guys to find interviews with other developers, too, if you haven't thought about doing so. And when you talk to them don't be so light hearted. There is little critque made by other gaming websites because they still have a "This is not very good and it's been done already but you can still have fun!" attitude (what I call the classic/conservative Adventure Game/Barney-optimistic attitude) which you guys are leaning away from, anyway... Also, don't blame me for writing crazy proposals at 4:00 AM that are plausible.

Umm... doesn't Nintendo make good money over in Japan? You know, that other country that exists that is nintendo's true target audience? What about worldwide software? No one can copy their propietary discs either... when I went home (Venezuela) in december, the only original titles you could buy were nintendo games... everything else (PS2, Xbox) was burned and sold for like $1... and who makes money out of that dollar? the software pirates, of course. United States is not the only country that exists, you know. I predict that General Motors is going to buy Renault. Why? Well, it doesn't sell that well in the United States...

Man, I forgot how shitty full throttle 2 looked. Good job lucasshit, without the people that made you what you are, you're nothing but a pile of star wars publishing crud. Also, Instead of meaning "the nothing" with "La Nada", "El Nada" actually means "He Swims" in spanish

I played the old and new intro side to side, and in sync, and it looks like they've been tweaking some things here and there... like the fire looks a lot better now, and raz pops out his head from the overhead view a lot earlier on the new version. Coach Oleander sounds a lot like Glottis, and Dr. Loboto is definitely Dr. Fred Edison... and the music (from the screensaver/trailer) reminds me of like Beetlejuice (I think) meets Day of The Tentacle with the jazzy style of Grim Fandango. The introduction is great... as I've been reading, it is right that Tim Schafer just puts you right in the middle of the conflict. I still remember when I played Full Throttle (first LEC game I actually owned) and man... it might have burned out my old vga card, but it was awesome!

I thought that Tim's sweater was great, but I was mostly interested on how he actually eats! It's not like a bad thing, but I was kind of suprised that he is a bigger guy than I thought he was. I wasn't suprised by his voice since I've heard it before and I can now accept it, but I must admit that the first time I heard it I was indeed suprised. Whenever you go on a live tv show for the first time you feel kind of anxious (from my own exprerience on local access tv) but then you get used to it. I'm sure this is one of the few times Tim was ever on TV, live... Psychonauts looked great, I hope it lives out to not only casual gamer's standards, but specially to core gamer standard's towards platform games.... It's late, I should sleep.

Yoofster, this one is just for you: http://www.osdata.com/pict/gates.mov

I didn't know you could actually make big games with 12-18 people these days... they must be proud of themselves... or careless... or something. I read that the music for the game is going to be recorded over at paramount or columbia pictures or something with a choir and all... Also, ysbreker, what's the deal with your avatar? It looks like something... dirty.

They should have called the game Doom 3: Resuerection of Evil

Psychonauts is becoming unleashed! Check out the IGN page: http://xbox.ign.com/ Raz is all over the cover (hopefully you'll check it on time)

When are you going to stop failing, my remo? Also, what's teh deal with George Lucas, Jr. I hope he doesn't start making prequels...