Core Dump #1

Well I wasn't sure it would ever come to this, but I feel like blogging and I don't feel like taking the time to structure my thoughts, so I'm just gonna do a core dump on the last few days (that's a programming joke which inspired the name of this blog, for those of you who didn't know. See the very first post).

I pre-ordered my copy of Shadow of the Colossus yesterday. They say they should get it tomorrow, and I've been feeling like a little kid on Christmas Eve ever since. That game is by FAR my most anticipated game of the year. I just can't wait to play it. According to the Gamefaqs message boards that game is being hyped like there's no tomorrow by gaming critics. As much as I feel the game deserves credit just for really trying to stick its head out from the heard, I find it totally stupid to see so many scores of 9.5 or above. This further reinforces my point that Gamespot is the most credible site for game reviews. You can't just go around handing out 9.9s to every game that you like. That's just stupid and it encourages stupidity among gamers who suddenly start thinking that any game that gets a score of 8.9 or under sucks.

Speaking of which, I've been spending most of my Gamefaqs-time hanging around on the Next-Gen Gaming board. I gotta say the amount of immaturity there is astonishing. I thought the fighting game boards were bad. Fanboys REALLY annoy the hell outta me, but they also entertain me: a love-hate relationship. The main thing I like about the NGG board is that it's active like hell. Anytime I check up, someone's posted within the last two minutes, so I can go there, post something, and check back in like 20 minutes and actually have a decent shot at reading a response to what I said.

I stumbled onto a link today that sent me on a 20-minute oddysey reading up on Jack Thompson, his proposal to the gaming industry, and the Hot Coffee mod in GTA:San Andreas (links will be left as an exercise). Though I think that alot of people are over-reacting to that Hot Coffee mod, I officially have no sympathy for Take Two or Rockstar. I read that they issued a press-release stating that that mod was an un-authorised hack, which is just STUPID. I have no idea when the press-release was sent and I don't feel like checking right now, but I gotta admit I knew that you CAN access that mod on the PS2 if you have a Gameshark or any other cheat device. This totally blows away the theory that hackers decompiled their code, added Hot Coffee and recompiled it, which is what they were saying. It's a lose-lose story: Either they're lyars, or they have no idea what the fuck is on their CDs when they ship them.

That's it. I am now playing:

• We love Katamari
• Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
• FF1: DoS

Games are art!

Lately I've been spending some time reading on a nice little website whose main purpose is to promote the idea that games are art. This is actually the site where I got the link to that talk on the state of the industry I posted just over two months ago. At the time it was a blossoming site. Just a bud. And since then its community has grown rather respectably. The forums, though not as active as I'd like them to be, are a nice place to just talk about the issues at hand, and to debate over possible solutions to the situation.

The news, articles and links found on this site have really opened my eyes. The GDC transcript I originally read was a monster kickstart, but since then I've been quite concerned with the overall health of the gaming industry. Just today I finally got around to reading a very well written article by Greg Costikyan on the industry as a whole, what's wrong with it, and what he proposes as a solution. Again I encourage anyone who feels concerned about the future of video games to read his article at the very least. It inspired me to take action. I'm going to do what I can to help protect this medium that I love. Unfortunately, the main thing I can do right now is spread awareness, which is what this post is all about.

If you want more info on the issue, gamesareart.com is a really nice starting point. It's gonna be MY launch point for a while unless a better one pops up. And even then, the forums alone will keep me coming back for sure. Good stuff!

Update Oct 26th, 2006: Reading that last sentence was funny, as I haven't posted on gamesareart.com in a long time. Anyway I want to post a link to this issue of the Escapist which is on the issue of games and art.