I've been gone from doing blog posts on Gamespot.com for quite some time. Well, I'm back, and with some material to talk about - I've been doing an online video series about video games and so forth for a while, and I've just started doing videos where I go through the history of Nintendo Power, one issue at a time, and reviewing every single game the magazine featured, starting from issue 1.

As I can't embed videos here, I'm gonna post a link to the first video in the retrospective on YouTube, and let you subscribe to my YouTube channel from there.

The Video can be watched here.

The blog post by Wil Wheaton I mentioned in the video can be found here.

I came across this news article as I was going along the news page. Basically, the general gist of the article is that Square is going to make Serious Games, in addition to their usual stuff. To my surprise, the response from Gamespot users in the comments is overwhelmingly negative. This shocked me, greatly. To be clear, from what I understand, "Serious Games" aren't games with a serious plot, or games with mature themes, or games deliberately made to be Artistic. In the industry (IIRC), Serious Games is practically a technical term, referring to games meant to address a social issue, such as disaster relief, or protecting refugees in Darfur, or similar situations. The key idea here is that a Serious Game does social commentary. This does not mean that "Kuma/War" is a Serious Game either. Kuma/War is simply taking the Law & Order "Ripped Straight From The Headlines" approach to game design. There isn't anything wrong with that, necessarily - nor is there anything wrong with kind of games we have now. However, by making Serious Games, and making good ones, and calling attention to them, you can build up the idea that Games are something to take seriously as a medium rather then just a genre. The game industry needs it's Maus (which recounted his father's experiences during the Holocaust), it's Safe Area Gorazde (a piece by a journalist who recounted his experiences covering the war between Bosnia and Serbia during the early 90's). Those comics provided credibility and clout to the medium of comics and graphics novels. Serious Games can do the same thing for video games.

    I've been watching Layer Cake today, and this movie really hit the nail the head for why I'm really not hooked by the GTA games. You're always at the bottom of the Layer Cake. You never really work your way up the ladder.
    Now, The Godfather: The Game, because of the game's story, as well as the respect mechanic, as well as a few other things, handles this better then the GTA games, IMHO. You start off at the bottom, but later on in the game you become a better earner, and you move further and further up the ladder. I haven't played all the way through "Scarface: The Game", I really got the feel that you were moving up the ladder there as well.
    The Gangsters series of games also almost did this for me too. The game's premise had you trying to basically work your gang up the ladder and run the city. However, from various elements of the controls (especially combat and watching the "work week") made the game really frustrating for me.
    Does anybody have any recommendations for Gangster games which, instead of you being basically at the bottom of the proverbial layer cake for the whole game, instead has you working your way up the ladder to the top so, presumably, at the end of the game, you're the top boss and running the city?

As a general rule, I have a small list of countries that I'd consider moving to if, say, the Constitution Party's candidate was elected President, of if a draft was approved, or if the **AA managed to buy majority control of the House & Senate and got a law passed that we technically don't own any of the books, DVDs, music, and whatever we have in our houses (at least as far as usage rights are concerned).

Well, Europe just got lopped off my list, after I read this story which happened last week, which I somehow missed.

(Article from Deutsche Welle news)

In short, after all the legislation that has been pushed in Germany after two allegedly video-game related murders (one a shooting at a high school by a youth who played a lot of Counterstrike, and another two teenagers who called themselves "Sephiroth" and "Reno" after the characters from Final Fantasy VII, and committed a series of murders and kidnappings), a growing number of people within the German government are calling for EU wide anti-video game legislation.

Well, I'd already cut England off the list due to the pervasive surveillance cameras, high gas prices (in comparison to US gas prices), the poor conversion rate and other things.

France had been cut off of the list because of the pervasive poor bureaucracy (the fact that they, by all accounts, learned nothing from the race riots in Paris housing projects, which are generally inhabited by poor, unemployed Muslim immigrants) - and the fact that it's incredibly hard to fire somebody from a job, even if they're a poor employee, and myriad other related issues.

Greece had been cut off the list due their de facto ban (which still stands, by the way) on internet cafes and video game arcades.

Germany went off the list when they were proposing domestic laws along the lines of the one I'm livid over.

Russia had been cut off the list due to the pervasive corruption, as well as several other Eastern European countries.

But Spain was still on the list (I have a passing knowledge of Spanish, enough to work as the building blocks to become more fluent), Italy was still on the list, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium were still on the list. If this passes, all of Europe is going off the list, which I consider to be a damn shame.

Switzerland is still there though! ;-)

Well, we've all seen the news articles and videos with people allegedly putting their Wii remotes through the front of their television set, or through windows, or hitting themselves (or their friends) in the head with them.

CNN has another article on the topic, this time about one of their reporters experiences with a Wii. It doesn't say anything new, but, on the bright side, it doesn't advocate imbecilic class-action lawsuits against Nintendo either. It simply says that you should you caution, something that those gamers who frequent sites like Gamespot already know, but those people who who don't go to video game web sites would not.

In my opinion, it doesn't quite go far enough, though that's mainly because in my experience, there are people who wouldn't get a hint if you thrashed them about the head and shoulders with it. It would have been a little better if the article had more explicitly addressed the existing class action lawsuit and suggested that those taking part were *ahem* misguided at best, money-grubbing at worst.

That said, it is a decent article, and bears reading. If only more people in the mainstream media could look at video games with this amount of rationality, then our hobby would be a better place. (That, and people like Jack Thompson would get less time in front of microphones - but that's a rant for another time).

For those of you who don't generally read the news page, allow me to refer you to this news article. The short summary of the article is web site GayGamer.net, which claims to focus on game coverage taylored for homosexual people, particularly homosexual men, came up with a top 20 list of the top 20 homosexual characters in games. Unfortunatly, rather than the list having primarily characters which are actually homosexual, instead it's dominated by unfortunate cliches. Note for the record: I am not homophobic. I have no problems with homosexuality and I am in favor of legalizing gay marrage. However, I do have problems with people unnecessarily labeling fictious characters as gay, and this article goes so far into the realm of cliche and stereotype as to enter the realm of middle-school level immaturity. Now the list isn't entirely dominated by false positives. There are some characters on there that are actually homosexual. For instance, #12, Vamp from Metal Gear Solid II, does kind of work, if only because vampires do have a fair amount of eroticism attached to them. The drinking of blood and the biting of the neck has been described by not just literary critics, but by literary scholars as a erotic act, and in Bram Stoaker's Dracula (not just the film, but the novel as well), Dracula's bite causes his victim to experience a feeling of ecastacy. Also, the character of #9 (Ash from Streets of Rage III) was obviously meant to be homosexual, as was #7 (Hana Vachel & Rain Qin from Fear Effect II) #6 (Bertram from Temple of Elemental Evil and #4 (Pierre and Gerard Magimel from the Shadow Hearts games). #3s homosexuality is debatable, but as the character is a vampire, there can be some leeway here. Also, #10 (Brad Evans from Wild Arms 2) was part of a homosexual relationship (or strongly emplied homosexual relationship) in the Japanese version of the game with a fellow soldier named Billy, a relationship that was downplayed in the American release. So, no issues there. #8 (Damian Shade and Rudolph Gartheimer of Japan-only game Groove on Fight) consists of another two characters who are described as gay (though, as the game was not released in the US I have to take their word, questionable as it may be, for it). The rest of the list, however, falls into cliche. #20 (Raphael Sorel of Soul Calibur II & III) is described as gay solely because he is a bishounen and French. For those not familiar, the term bishounen is (obviously) Japanese and referrs to men who are beautiful in appearance (the term is derived from the Japanese word bishoujo which means "beautiful" or "pretty"). Bishounen are generally meant to be the "ideal" in male attractiveness. Western women lust over men who show masculine traits physically, who are reasonably muscular (like Brad Pitt, or Russell Crowe or Colin Farrell) culturally. In Asian cultures, at present, men who are feminine in appearance are considered attractive. Also, considering that #20 is a character from Soul Calibur, putting it in a semi-Renaissance context, and that the character is a French noble, being feminine in appearance isn't entirely a negative for the time, as being muscular was something for peasants. Likewise for being tanned from the sun. Likewise, his swordfighting style is appropriate for the character and the time. Now, you could get freudian there, but once you get into Freud thing's get rediculous, and you could construe everything as being in some way construing homosexuality, so I'm not going to bother with Freud. #19 (Fox from the Bloody Roar series) is described as gay primarily because the character dresses effemanately (high-riding shorts, and a top that resembles a bikini top). The writer of the article assumes that Fox is male. IIRC, the character of Fox is female. Then again, the lack of stereotypically huge breasts common to females from Japanese fighting games may have thrown the writer of the article. #18 (Cybil Bennet from Silent Hill) is considered to be a lesbian because she is a motorcycle cop. That's it. No further justification other then a bad stereotype perpetuated by the Village People. Now, if there was sort of storyline explanation for this this would be one thing. But they give none. Now, before you suggest that they may have been considerate and chose not to give out spoilers - they give plenty of spoilers for many of the other entries in the list. #17 (Nagare Namikawa from Rival Schools 2) is considered to be gay because he is on the swim team. Again, the sole justification for being on the list is a stereotype. Let's move on. #16 (Alfred Ashford from Resident Evil: Code Veronica) - Here they have some major spoilers for Code Veronica. By major I mean huge. Now, as this particular spoiler has, AFAIK, not be spoiled to the same degree as "Aeris Dies" has been spoiled, I'm going to ROT13 it. If you want to read their justification for Ashford's inclusion, read the article. Anyway, vs Nyserq Nfusbeq vf tnl, gura Abezna Ongrf orybatf ba Dhrre Rlr. #15 (Eagle from Street Fighter) can be given some leeway for that choice, as the character was re-designed for his return in SNK vs. Capcom II to look more like the late Freddy Mercury, who was bisexual (which, in combination with his sexual promiscuity, may have signed his death warrant - but that's another matter). Other then that, the article's statements are based soley on fashion sense. #14 (Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater) is debatable. On the one hand, the character is a bit of a parody of Raiden from Metal Gear Solid II - who was derogatorily described as an effeminate pretty-boy by American fans. Also, the character is known for grabbing the crotch of male characters, and does have some dialogue implying that he may be gay. I'm going to semi-concede this one. He might be gay. He might not be gay. It's ambigous. #13 (Zangief from the Street Fighter series) brings us back into the realm of cliche and stereotype. Basically, the character is gay because he's a muscular professional wrestler. #11 (Birdo from Super Mario Bros. 2) leaves me scratching my head. The character's presense on the list is, basically, based on material which was cut from the final approved version of the game's manual. As printed, the character is either female, or asexual, depending on how you consider it. So, the character really doesn't belong on the list. We have now, after a nice steady block of 6 characters who actually are gay come to the Top Five. #5 is the King of All Cosmos - from Katamari Damashi. The justification here is the character's beard, the fact that rainbows come out of his mouth when he speaks, his costume, and his attitude. My rebuttal, in short, is this - the Katamari Damacy games are exercises in sillyness. Reading anything into them is an exercise in futility. If you are looking at the characters trying to determine if any of them are gay or not, or even worrying about later, you're wasting your time. The creator no more meant to have the character be gay than Eric Idle meant to suggest to people that he was gay by playing all those female characters on Monty Python's Flying Circus. #2 is The Cho Aniki Brothers - from the Cho Aniki series. I don't know what to say about this. Judging from all the footage of the game and stills of the game from the site they linked to, I can best say in the arguement for why these characters aren't gay is the game's creator made the game to make fun of all the people who either bother trying to figure out if a game character is gay, or make cliched homosexual game characters. #1 is Tingle from the latter (Oracle of Ages on) games in the Legend of Zelda series. Again, this one could be semi-debatable, except for one thing - where the Legend of Zelda series is concerned, Nintendo always tries to make the games family-friendly for both the Japanese and American market, both by not including graphic violent content, any sexual content (or anything that could be particularly construed as being sexual) or any particularly homosexual characters. While Nintendo may have tried to make Tingle "cute", and instead only made him "annoying". I doubt they were trying to make him gay. That's my run-down of the list. Feel free to post your comments - I'm interested in your input.

My body doesn't like me.

Yesterday, I whiped out on my bike. I fortunatly escaped any particularly serious injury. However, I believe I sprained my shoulders (because they're still sore) and scraped my hands up pretty bad. Today I got a small cut on the palm of my right hand because the glass jar I'd been keeping my loose change in chipped, and I didn't notice it until I cut myself. So, I'm stuck using a not-so-attractive coffee can again.
On the bright side, I made my first CAT-5 Patch Cable (well, the connectors), and I picked up Xenosaga I and ESPN Football 2K5 with just my trade-in money. Oh, and I finaly beat KOF Maximum Impact... albeit with the difficulty set to Wuss. Oh, and I straightened up all (well, most), of my bookshelves.

Well, for the last few months I've been using Opera as my primary web browser and E-Mail clien, and now here are my thoughts.

The Good: Opera's UI can be much, much more attractive than Firefox's is. Also, I found that I liked Opera's built-in RSS aggregator better than Firefox's. Furthermore, when browsing image galleries online, I could use the fast-forward and rewind buttons to easily browse the images.

The Bad: It's a resource hog. Furthermore, while the spam did a good job catching the spam, you still see the spam in your recieved box, as well as your unread folder.

The Ugly: Opera does not play well with others. After I had decided that I was done with Opera, I attempted to export my bookmarks and months of E-Mail from Opera. Much to my annoyance, I was unable to export my E-Mail, and found exporting my bookmarks to be problematic. Major Buzz-kill right there.

In conclusion, I'd reccomend sticking with Firefox. The memory, e-mail, and import-export issues just were enough of a problem to go back to Firefox to say. Now, as Opera's free verision now is, completly free, I would reccomend giving it a shot if you haven't before, just to see how you like it.

Have your own experiences with Opera to share? Post a comment and lemmie know what you think.

Well, for the last few months I've been using Opera as my primary web-browser and E-Mail client, and now here are my thoughts. The Good: Opera's UI can be much, much more attractive then Firefox's is. Also, I found that I liked Opera's built-in RSS Aggrigator better then Firefox's. And, when browsing image galleries online, I could use the fast-forward and rewind buttons to browse the images. Also, you can easily do a google search from the address bar. The bad: Opera likes to hog system recourses. Also, with the spam filter, it doesn't seperate the spam from the rest of your E-Mails, just has a filter set up to make them stand out more. Also, the interface just seems to take up more window space then Firefox does. The ugly: Opera does not play well with others. I was unable to export my E-Mail messages from the past few months, nor was I able to export my address book. And finally I was unable to cleanly and easily export my bookmarks from Opera. Major buzz-kill right here. In conclusion, I'd stick with Firefox. The memory, e-mail, and import-export issues, just were enough of a problem to make me go back to Firefox. However, as Opera is now ad-free and free-as-in-beer now, I would suggest giving it a shot, just to see how/if you like it. Also, I'm interested in your thoughts on using Opera. Lemmie know what you think.

Since I finally have reached level Six, I have posted my review, well, as a review. The URL is here.