Tactical Facepalm

It has been a while since I posted on the blog. I find it unfortunate that this current debacle with the marketing campaign for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 will be my first blog post in a long, long time. If you want more information on the subject I suggest you follow these links for perspective on both the developers, community, and persons effected by the kind of offensive rhetoric being brought to the forefront in this video. Vorpal Bunny Ranch, Brainy Gamer, Sarcastic Gamer, While !Finished, Developer Response.

Mixing up design

I was in elation when the indie game ROM CHECK FAIL came to my attention. The premise of the title is basically mixing a dozen of classic game titles together and through a series of randomly generated mash-ups we have a mini-game. Think of it as WarioWare, Inc. but more schizophrenic and nostalgic. Like most remixes, what we have is a creation of the new from the old. I’ve talked before about remediation by transitioning through familiar mediums in order to understand newer ones. What we have here is something in between by remediating older properties in the guise to create a creatively new one.

I’m all out of gum

I must confess, I always had hoped that Duke Nukem Forever would be released and proceed to win a Game of the Year award from numerous publications and online magazines. Sure, the development of 3D Realm’s long speculated vaporware title has been gaming’s longest running joke, but I still had faith that the studio could release a good game. Looking at their library from ten years ago, the studio along with id and Epic were one of the heavy weights of great game design and great games. Looking at the leaked animation footage from Duke Nukem Forever, the game looked like a lot of fun.

Small talk, high concept

And with that, I have finally returned dear reader. First and foremost I would like to apologize for the drought of content on this site of late. Unlike many of my fellow university blogging cohorts, I do not have the foresight to offer the same professionalism of time management to plan out and write posts ahead of time. But I would like to thank all of you that continue to diligently return to read postings and look forward to an update on the site. Now with the summer season upon us I hope to post more regularly, frequently, and periodically for your liking.

Critical-Distance and the CDC Podcast

This will be the only time I will ever shill for this program on this blog. But I have just produced a podcast for Critical Distance. Subscription links to subscribe via iTunes as well as the cast credits and show notes will be at the website weekly as more episodes are released. So sit back and listen to many of my fellow associates that have been linked to my site. It was a shaky start but I am certain once we all get into the routine of things this will be a pantheon for intelligent conversations on a medium we all care about immensely. For now you can head over to the RSS link to listen to the podcast: http://critical-distance.mypodcast.com/rss.xml

BoRT April ’09 [The Wire]

A note before I begin this Blogs of the Round Table post, you may have noticed that there is a drought of content on this site. This was mentioned before at the beginning of this month. The main reason—aside from poor time management—is that these last weeks of April mark the final weeks of the semester. As I am preoccupied with papers, presentations, and undergraduate grading my time has become criminally limited. I will try to post at least once a week, but until mid-May I will be predisposed with other responsibilities for the coming weeks. With that in mind, let us begin this BoRT entry.

Commerce, Contracts, & Coders

While attending one of my business-entertainment seminars we were on the subject of contracts, more specifically actor contracts negotiation. Basically, the discussion culminated to how actors and their agents bargain for salary ceiling and so forth. It eventually culminated to one student—possibly future industry agent—asking a question that I will now paraphrase:

Student: If say a high salary actor [insert celebrity] can bargain for $25 million in his contract for a movie, why would he decide to risk a lower salary for a less successful film?

Professor: You have to understand, actors are also artists.

Pennsylvania Polka

I have to apologize for the dry run of activity on this blog. As the final weeks of class are on the horizon and I have been busy with some personal matters, you—neglected reader—probably have been wondering what has happened? Well, fret no more because I have been pondering some new exciting material for the site once the summer season sets in. In the mean time I thought a little fun post would suffice. I meant to post this story a couple of weeks ago when it was timelier but alas my procrastination and oversight have failed me once again. Rather than wait another year to finally make this little critique public, I feel that since it recently snowed in my hometown of Chicago I feel that this story is quite appropriate, offering no better opportunity to investigate one our the earliest videogame movies: Harold Ramis’s comedy classic Groundhog Day.

Why graphics still matter

I finally made the plunge and updated my PC. After months and months and scrimping and waiting for bargain deals to pop-up online I finally have the components to completely upgrade my gaming rig. Looking back, it has taken over a year to collect all the parts necessary. The final result is I can run DirectX 10. Immediately after booting up the new hardware with the most updated drivers and I checked on a few older games I had in my library to see the difference. Though I was happy with the results it was not until I began running Far Cry 2 that it really hit me: graphics matter.

Reiteration, remediation, & recourse (Part 2)

I spoke last time about reiteration without touching upon the importance of remediation. Especially for new media, remediation functions as an access point presenting the new with the familiar. It is no surprise that we see in videogames the necessity to invoke and relate to the cinematic experience as a starting point for new gamers. The advent of music games, Wii titles, and casual games are perfect examples of using these sorts of access points to introduce a new audience. But while remediation functions wonderfully in new media, its use in game design is questionable.